DO YOU EVER ABANDON YOUR MANUSCRIPTS?

How many false starts have you experienced? Why? How do you know? Jeff

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Meenu Mehrotra on April 9, 2012 at 11:21am

I wrote a book few months back and took the mandatory 6 week break before starting the second draft. But found that I no longer felt connected to the subject. Have discarded it for now and begun a new story but might use the content in the coming book. I don't think we should abandon manuscripts. Every written word is a treasure which can illuminate at some other time in another manuscript.

Permalink Reply by Ronald R. Hanna on April 9, 2012 at 11:34am

Never "abandon" but might put aside a personal project started to begin and completely immerse myself in a completely new one. Doing that right/write now: Had a personal novel started last winter, but the COMMERCIAL aspects of a new one has taken precedent, and I'm going to finish that one first.

But the one from last winter is over in "Word," and is evergreen. I'll water it and revive it and finish it later.

Permalink Reply by Jan Lazo-Davis on April 9, 2012 at 1:35pm

I have abandoned a few books. Sometimes with the outline, sometimes with the concept, sometimes with a few chapters done.

For me, somehow after I research the subject, research the audience, consider marketing the book, create an outline, write some initial words - there comes a point where I examine the question: Do I want to continue this?

It is at this point which I say yes - or no and move on depending upon the answer.

Permalink Reply by Joan Adamak on April 9, 2012 at 3:42pm

My novel "Phillipa and the Big Scot" I started working on in 1957, picked it up a couple of time and then gave up and just finished it and published it as an Amazon ebook just a few months ago.

Permalink Reply by Tom Flood on April 9, 2012 at 5:00pm

Sometimes they abandon me (ie they get lost) but me, not so far as I know - yet.

Permalink Reply by Ekta R. Garg on April 9, 2012 at 10:53pm

I've set aside some story ideas but still keep the notes with the hope I can use them some day. As Meenu said, I deeply value every word and don't feel like I should get rid of any of them.

Permalink Reply by Meenu Mehrotra on April 10, 2012 at 4:54am

Words are like kids...we can never abandon them, Ekta:)

Permalink Reply by Mollyann Tabachnikov on April 11, 2012 at 1:47pm

I've generated a few ideas for novels that I never developed. The ideas, in short story or first chapter form, are still on my computer. The one novel I have competed, Whispers in the Night, obsessed me for a year. I couldn't stop writing it. I tried. It haunted me, kept me awake at night. So I finished it. Now I'm looking for an agent or publisher.

Permalink Reply by Mark Pound on April 11, 2012 at 3:19pm

I'll never abandon my manuscript, or determination to have it published. You have the sample I sent on April 4 (sorry, there was a typo in the query letter/synopsis), and I hope you like it. I'd like for the poem and artwork to be considered part of it, not as extras.

Permalink Reply by jeff herman on April 12, 2012 at 1:19pm

But if you do abandon them, do you return them? Do you intend to?

Permalink Reply by Jan Lazo-Davis on April 12, 2012 at 1:38pm

I always intend to return - sometimes years later. Sometimes my thoughts need to percolate before they are ready to express. I have a few manuscripts percolating as I write this. Maybe someday!!!

Permalink Reply by Ameasha Brown on April 22, 2012 at 10:18am

It's not that I abandon my manuscripts, it's that I get discouraged. I have four novels that are on the go right now, but one that I have dedicated a serious amount of time on. My novel The Calling is one that I dreamed back in the year 2000, and it developed into thirty - four chapter. It's a fantasy novel and when I found out just how much was required, past experience, ( I have none ) writing credentials, ( I have none ) marketing, ( no experience or money to do it ) and getting an agent, I felt defeated. I'm sixty years old, I have never been published, except on line in writing groups, and for a first time author it's very difficult, especially when I don't have the resources. I know it's not impossible to get published, it's just that it's a long, hard road to travel when I don't have any viable connections. I have so many ideas for stories but, no way to get them out to an audience. I wish there was a way to be able to share my thoughts and stories.

Ameasha