Starting Over...Today

My original story idea is now in the trash and I am starting over with a more mature novel. It's going to be an adult novel with the theme being love and a journey. I think I found my problem with my writing. I never had that teenage romance so writing a teen romance was just never going to work out for me. I have always been more mature than those of my age and that's what set me apart from the rest of them. So I need for this to work out for me....Fingers crossed!

Writing is a lot of work. Just because something doesn't work out at first doesn't mean that you will never get it to work, or that it is impossible to make work.

Giving up on a story when things stop working out really isn't the best way to write. It takes a lot of commitment to complete a story, and getting into the habit of dropping things when they stop working is actually very harmful to your ability to write.

Not to say that putting aside a story is always bad. Sometimes, you just need to take a break from what you're writing. It's when you drop it because it became too hard to write and have no intention of going back and completing it that the problem arises.

Even if the completed draft is bad, even if it's nothing like you intended it to be, completing a draft is a great learning experience, one you're missing out on if you just drop it partway. Everything you write, and every story you complete, adds to your skills as a writer, so the more stories you write and complete, the more skilled you will become.

Basically, what I'm saying is that you need to learn how to commit yourself to a story, even when it stops working for you. The sooner you can learn to do that, the better a writer you will be.

I disagree Kyllorac. If you think your story is trashy, it's probably a good idea to start over. Just don't go getting the idea that it's gonna be any less trashy when you do. Chances are, if one story stinks so will the other.