When to shelve it for good.

Sometimes, you have to be honest with yourself and say…it’s just time to let go.

 

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I know, I know. It’s hard. You have that novel/script/manual/handbook/tome that you wrote a few years ago and it was something special to you. Maybe it was the first book you wrote ever. Maybe it was based on something that happened to you or your family. Maybe it’s the story you wrote that inspired you to be a writer in the first place.

 

But, here’s the thing — just because you FEEL emotionally about this work doesn’t really mean it’s actually good.

 

In my case, this was a lesson that took about, oh, five years or so to learn. In 2008, I’d stumbled upon the Twilight books and did what a lot of beginning writers did at that time period — I thought, “Hey, this is a “thing.” Maybe I could do this.” I put some thought into a good hook and storyline. I’d spent time in Greece and Turkey, and I knew quite a bit about mythology, so I decided to go with that. (Obviously, I hadn’t heard of Rick Riordan or Percy Jackson — if I had, I may not have continued on that path.)

 

Anyway, I wrote a book called Gods of Rock, about a girl who goes to Greece to be an intern on a rock tour. I adored this book. I wrote it in about 30 days, then started querying immediately. Knowing what I know now about writing/querying/the business now, I NEVER would have sent this book out to agents. It was a mess.

 

But, somehow, the concept was solid enough that my first agent found something redeemable in me, and I’ll be forever grateful for that. But I guess it isn’t a huge shock that she wasn’t able to sell it, even after it went through extreme revisions. Since then, I’ve revised it multiple times between writing and selling other books. This past summer, I tried reformatting it into a New Adult book because I felt that the subject matter would work really well if the characters were a bit older.

 

But, in the end, it just isn’t working. The truth — THE TRUTH — is that, if I really wanted to make this book something viable, I need to start from scratch. And that means shelving the current MS.

 

It’s hard. I learned a lot writing this book and I credit it for helping me pull out of the doldrums of post-partum blues and getting me an agent. But, in the end, I’ve learned so much SINCE writing that book that it really isn’t a product of how I write anymore. I have a lot of other fish to fry with my publisher(s) and I don’t really have time to start from scratch, no matter how much I adore the characters and the story line.

 

So, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s time to shelve this baby for good. It makes me a little sad, but I’m so excited about my writing future. It really makes putting away this book a little bit easier. It’s always important to look toward the future.