Letting Go

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. ~ Earl Nightingale

I'm working through my contest entries and it occurred to me that one of them is a novel I wrote more than five years ago, and that the original idea and first scenes were written about 15 years ago! Geez... talk about letting is simmer.

I love the story. It's the reason I met a couple good writing friends (waves at C and D!) who were in the class I took with it. It's the first novel I completed as an adult (I wrote three as a teenager... I still have one of them and wonder what happened to the other two). It's a fun premise (if I may say so) and I've missed the characters.

A couple of days ago, Colleen Gleason wrote about letting your books go... when is it time to shelve them? The thought of giving up forever on one of my babies is hard. I keep thinking that, with enough time, effort and editing it will be publishable.

So, when do you decide your baby has to be put away for good, that it simply isn't saleable (is that a word?) and your time would be better served by starting something new? Are you able to simply consider it time well spent in learning the craft and set it aside?

I'm not at the point, because I haven't shopped this novel yet. But suppose a hundred agents/editors tell me that the book is simply not going to sell anywhere for whatever reason? Then what?

Charity has shelved several of her books (sadly for me cuz I want to read them all, over and over... esp. CC, C, though I'm still reading GGG - and enjoying it) so she's a pro. Speaking of Charity, check out the article she wrote at "Literary Mama" -- It's really great!