When a project doesn't work.
My goal last year was to write three manuscripts. I wrote two, one of which is due this year, and while that’s two more than the vast majority of people will ever write in their lifetimes, it disappointed me.
The problem wasn’t writer’s block but rather an excess of ambition. You see, I had what I thought was a brilliant idea about corruption and scandal in a presidential campaign — especially appropriate given what we’re enduring right now — but couldn’t stick the landing.
I’m experienced enough to recognize when things aren’t working. I can tell on a conceptual level if there’s enough meat in a story idea to make a book, and once I’m working on a book, I can tell if it’ll make it to the finish line satisfactorily. This is one of those times when it wouldn’t pull through.
I tried. I even started over and attempted to write it a second time with a different approach, but I still got hung up on the same issues. As much as it pained me, I had to put the incomplete manuscript away.
These things happen, but that doesn’t make accepting it any easier. I like to think that I’m an endless font of brilliant ideas, and every one of them will create a terrific novel. That’s not the case for anyone, and certainly not for me. And that makes me a better writer than I was at the start.
On to the next project.