This is a question many writers ask themselves when putting a story together, whether it’s a comic, short story, or novel. Particularly longer stories such as novels or graphic novels which can take a substantial amount of time to complete. You might be rethinking if the story you’re writing is worth all the time and effort. You could be writing that other story swimming around your head, or you could be doing something else entirely.
Then if you do decide to give up on a story, you may feel guilty that you’re adding another unfinished story to the pile. So, when it came to my own doubts, I decided to ask the good people of the internet their opinion.
I posted a poll on Mastodon to see what people thought, and while it didn’t garner the same number of participants as my last poll on Five things to consider before you stop reading that book, this was to be expected given there are probably more readers than writers out there.
I also posted on BlueSky, but unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to do polls there yet so just a post asking for opinions was the best I could do.
As you can see on Mastodon, when asked should writers always finish a project, even if they’re not feeling it anymore?” 97% said, “No, give up and move on. Don’t waste time!” Whereas only 3% stated, “Yes, always finish your WIPs.” This is interesting because I expected it to be the other way around. In fact, the writing advice I heard was to always finish your WIPs; it’s the only way you can gauge your process.
Luckily for me, some people expanded on their vote, and what I discovered is this isn’t a simple yes or no question, even though the majority of people say it’s okay to quit. But the real question I realised is, “Why do you want to quit?”
I was working on a book a few years ago, and I pushed myself to the end, after which I felt I was done with it. I need to finish this even if it doesn’t see the light of day, I thought. It’s a small book, broken up into 5 novelettes, but serialised like a TV show following the same characters and plot arc. After I was done, I just left it and moved onto the next thing.
But I never examined why I gave up or why I didn’t continue editing it. Looking back, I think I was just jaded and frustrated and I had a new story idea to get started on.
Then, at the end of last year, I decided to pick it up again and I was glad I did. I edited the whole thing, got feedback, edited it again, and there were a few things I discovered.
- I really like the book now, and there were ideas in it worth working on.
- I’m a better writer now than when I was when I muddled through it the first time and was better equipped to fix the problems.
- I haven’t written enough books to know when I should give up or keep going.
I think the third point is what I found most important. While I agree it’s okay to give up on writing projects, you need to know when to do that. Ironically, I found the best way to know when to give up on a story is to write a lot of them. Counter intuitive, I know. So, while it’s okay to give up on stories, I’m glad I didn’t give up on mine.
Now I’m halfway through writing a novel, and those feelings I had before are returning. Do I really want to finish this book? Should I keep going? But this time I’m examining why I feel this way. If I’m being honest, right now I’m just finding it hard, because writing is a difficult task. So, for me, pushing through is the right thing to do.
But if you feel like you’re quitting your story for all the right reasons, then don’t feel guilty. 97% of the good people on Mastodon agree with you along with a debut novelist on BlueSky.
MARK KIELTY 