Let Them Die (Your Unfinished Projects)
Keep moving forward!
Dear friends, this morning I created a new folder in my writing directory, and gave it the rather dramatic title of ‘Let Them Die.” I have been writing, off and on, for around 25 years now, and my writing directory has many short stories (and novels) in various states of completion. If you’re writer I’m sure yours does too, but this also applies to artists, crafters, even content creators. Anyone that has a backlog of partially complete projects that they are holding on to. That by itself is not the problem. What is, however, is failure to let go of them and move on.
We invest so much of ourselves into our work. We come up with an idea, characters, the plot, and then spend so much time and effort in the writing and editing process that we, to use a poker term, become pot committed. We lose the ability to objectively consider the work as a whole, and become tempted to work and rework, revise, re-edit and rewrite over and over again. Sometimes this works but often we are trapped by our own ego, and, without realizing, are doing little more than polishing a turd. Those who submit work to publishers or magazines have to get past a gatekeeper, which is not always a bad thing, but those of us on Substack are self-publishing, and we have to take on that role of the gatekeeper for ourselves.
I’m not saying that your writing has to be perfect for it to be posted on Substack. Mine isn’t, but you have to be happy that it represents you now, not who you were.
Facing a directory full of incomplete, abandoned or constantly rejected stories is not good for anyone’s mental health. It makes you feel like a failure, and these unfinished stories weigh you down, becoming the albatross around your neck
Three of my recent stories, “The Naming Ritual” “Deity Auditions” and “ A Brief Interlude” were revised and extended versions of old stories. Enough time had passed, and my skills had improved, that I thought they each deserved one more attempt, but unknowingly I fell into the trap of going back to a rapidly drying well.
I recently announced a new subscription tier for $3 USD a month, and I promise something new every week, and I admit, my unfinished or previously ‘trunked’ stories suddenly looked very tempting. But it would not be fair to my subscribers if I did this. Even if I could revise another old story to a satisfactory level, what would be the point? The motivation I have for a fifteen or ten year old story has long past. And if I posted them regardless and my subscribers liked the stories, that would be even worse. I would have to keep writing in a genre or style that no longer interests me.
I was looking back, when I should be charging forward.
This is why paid subscribers will get the first chapter of my new novel (An upper-middle grade children’s fantasy) this weekend, and free subscribers will get a short humorous story next week.
Here is a small sample of the stories I said goodbye to…
Digital Fortunes for Digital Futures - A story I started in the year of the Millennium, 25 years ago, about a future AI that controls everything, and a man (wearing a concealed bomb) who gets a tarot reading that is guaranteed not to be wrong.
A dungeons and Dragons / Sword and Sorcery knockoff that begins in a Tavern (this rarely develops into a good story)
A cringeworthy first attempt at a humorous short story.
Another 2 or 3 sword and sorcery short stories.
A dragon turned into a human by witch fantasy story. The idea was passable but the writing is atrocious. The research file was good though and might be salvageable.
A story called Higher Powers which I have returned to a number of times but have never been able to complete.
For Want of Life - A fantasy noir angel and demon fantasy in a modern city. Overworked. Ambitious. Would need a lot of work and I don’t think I would ever really be happy with it. Isn’t the kind of story that I would write now.
The Cyber Artist - A story about human / machine body modification, including artificial intelligence. Had some good writing, but so much has changed technology wise since I originally wrote this,
It can be very hard to willing give up on a story, artwork, or idea, your brain will rebel, and try and tell you that they are worth keeping, even for just a little while longer. In my case I had six that resisted going into the ‘Let Them Die’ folder. It is over 24 hours since I started this newsletter and I looked over those six again, and I made the difficult decision to add two more to the folder - stories 7 and 8 above. You might say, ‘so what’ you can just go back in there and get them out again, and that is true, but a folder named ‘Let Them Die’ is more of a deterrent than one called ‘Trunked’ or ‘Unpublished’
The stories that survived the cull are mostly still incomplete, one is a ghost story (but not of the scary kind) the others are fantasy. The only complete story that managed to remain was a zombie one, which could best be described as quiet horror. I am thinking about giving that one another chance around Halloween.
End matter:
Dear friends, I hoped this essay resonated with you, perhaps you can identify with it. Please feel free to comment on this essay, and tell me what you do with your old projects, how often you go back to them, and how you feel when making the difficult decision to call it a day,
This is such an interesting perspective. I too, have been writing for more than twenty years and have a folder of unfinished ideas. Anything from a title to a few thousand words. I don't see them as graves though, I see them as potential for life. A future project. It's nice to visit them sometimes and laugh at how badly I wrote when I was young. And sometimes, surprise myself with how good something reads. I steal those bits and insert them into what I'm writing now. Some of these past ideas won't ever come to fruition (who has the time?) But they're parts of me nonetheless, and as long as they don't haunt me, it's fine to keep them tucked away in that folder. Just in case.
Fascinating essay and notion. I loved this essay, and think you've raised an interesting point. I must admit I can't quite let old projects die and yet you've made me look at this sort of act in a new light. Interesting, wish you all the best Adam! Hope you'll send me these new stories on WW & S&S so I can help promote them.