Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
There comes a point for many writers that they have written a pretty long story, but it's been a while and it isn't really going anyplace anymore... It's just rambling, getting bigger and bigger...
Maybe it's time to archive your story, published or unpublished, and start something new.
Only you know if this applies to you, but most writers do reach the point where they must decide that enough is enough—that as painful as it might be to move on from a particular story, it needs to be done.
If you do delete a story, no matter how big it was, don't feel like you wasted your time or energy on it. Don't feel that you only succeed if you publish a story and it stays published. You succeed when you're happy, and if improving makes you happy, then deleting your "magnum opus" is often a necessary step. That said...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
...don't take it too far.
You can't just keep deleting and deleting and deleting and deleting your stories ad infinitum. All writers at some point must also realize that their stories will never be perfect.
No story is. No story can be. Each story will be flawed to somebody, even despised. Try not to let that person who despises your story be yourself. Every time you sit down to write, you're never going to write something perfect, but you'll usually write something better if you keep a positive attitude.
You can't truly improve at story-writing if you never reach the middle of your story, the climax of it, or the end of it. Restarting can only help so much.
Always, always bear this in mind, though... If you aren't having fun, try to have fun, and if you can't have fun and reach your goals, it may be time to set new goals. Novelizing is not for everyone. Please do not let it be a source of agony!
Maybe stick to diary-writing, or poetry, or short stories. Maybe write only once a month, or maybe stop altogether!
Within a few years, you'll know whether writing is a source of great joy for you or if it's merely a passing phase. Either way it is okay! The most important thing is that you're mindful of your happiness and its sources.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
