Yesterday I wrote about the value of finishing projects. Although we all know in the back of our minds that we should finish what we’ve started, we sometimes find it hard to resist the new project waiting in the wings. On those days when writing is tough, and your current project is no longer interesting to you, you could so easily drop it and start something new.
I personally had to resist this temptation quite recently. One evening last week, I sat down to do my daily writing and had a moment of weakness, thinking, “I have nothing more to give to this story, why not check out that new idea?” I’ve had a new writing project idea brewing in my brain since the end of last year’s National Novel Writing Month. So far I’ve been successful in keeping that idea at bay while I work on finishing the novel I started in November. But there are still moments when the lure of a new project, along with the inspiration that comes with that newness, has been tempting.
In this case, what stopped me from jumping to the new project was a status update from one of my writer friends. She had just hit 100,000 words on her current project, and she has been writing away for about a year now on the same project. Hearing about that kind of thing from my friends who also write is what keeps me going and makes me want to finish. The success of others can be a fairly good motivating factor.
On that note, are any of you struggling to stick with a project right now? Do you have a new idea that you’re dying to try out? What has stopped you from shifting gears to the new project? Share your experiences in the comments!
I also wanted to ask whether any of you disagree with this principle of always finishing the writing projects that you begin. I know there are some folks who commit “book adultery” when reading, who are able to drop a book if they find it’s not holding their attention and simply move on to another. Are there people out there who do the same with writing? I would love to hear from you in the comments! Do you find that abandoning projects is sometimes necessary? Does it help your writing process?
Hoping to hear from you in the comments!
— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan
