I’ve talked before about how an author knows it’s time to shelve a book. I’m not going into that today. Instead, I’m pondering a different part of the same situation.
Why I don’t like to shelve a book. I know for everyone it’s a little different. Hell, for every manuscript it’s a little different.
But there’s always one element that’s the same. Sometimes I hate shelving because I loved the characters, or the plot, or the entire package of story.
But I always feel bad about it because I’m not the only one who put time and effort into that story. Sure, it’s easy for me to say “okay, that’s my time gone”. But it’s far more difficult for me to say “okay, that’s the time gone of everyone who read, offered feedback on, and beleived in my book.”
Which I know, is the entirely wrong reason to not shelve a book. But maybe it just means I haven’t found that one story yet that sings to my heart the way I need it to. Then again, I can’t exactly just wait around for that, right? If I only have one heart-singing book in me, I don’t have much of a career ahead of me.
Never think of the book as being permanently shelved. It’s always temporary. You never know when you’re going to have that flash of brilliance that will tell you how to make that story shine.
And even if you do shelve it forever, you’ve learned from writing that book. The people who read for you learned by critiquing it. So it’s never a waste.
Oh, lands, right? Sometimes writing seems only about you/me/the author, but once you start getting feedback there’s a lot more that goes into it.
But can I say, if you ever (or anyone else I’ve Betaed/Cped for) shelved that book, I wouldn’t feel like it was time gone for me. I learn a lot even when critiquing other people’s manuscripts, so even if it doesn’t quite make it, we’ve both still managed to gain from it.
On a side note, it’s so hard to shelf books, isn’t it? Just thinking about that being a possibility for my current WIP makes me feel ill.
Personally, if I enjoyed critiquing a book–and I usually do, even if it’s a lot of work–and then the author shelved it, I would be a bit sad that nobody else got to read it, but I would feel lucky that at least *I* got to read it.
It’s one of the secret reasons I like to CP.
I’m with Kate. It’s never a waste, and it’s never permanent.
Visiting from GUTGAA – checking out some blogs, and newly following. Just wanted to say writing is never wasted, even if it is shelved and neither is critiquing. It might be you can visit that book or that character some day. And even if you don’t, all that work feeds into your next MS to help make it even more awesome.
I don’t think time on writing is ever wasted. Each new project benefits from the effort put into the books before them. 🙂 Read Outliers: The Story of Success might get you excited, especially if you have a number of shelved projects.
Hi Loralie,
I’m so glad I found your blog. I wrote five books before I found an agent. FIVE! And each time I thougth that was THE ONE.
But they weren’t. And even though a bucket load of time went into them, it wasn’t a waste because each time we write, we get better.
Cheers!
I think that a lot of times, if you give your book a break, later on you can use part of the idea again, or even re-work the book. Sometimes breaks from a manuscript do wonders. (Not all the time, of course!)