I want to start writing again: original project or new one?
To make a long story short, writing used to be a huge part of my life. I found a project that I loved and was dedicated to making it a published novel. Several beta readers reviewed later drafts and said that they loved the characters and the writing style and wanted to see more. Then about a year ago, I started struggling with depression, anxiety, etc., and somewhere in that transition writing stopped being a passion of mine. Seeing this reflected in the quality of my work, I decided I was burnt out and took a sabbatical. I haven't picked up creative writing since (and never wanted to).
One belief that I took from all this: If I was truly as passionate as I thought I was, I wouldn't be able to let it go. Now in recent months I've been re-inspired to pick up that unfinished novel again. I've weighed the pro's and con's and I've decided being a writer is worth it for me. I'm in a better state of mind at present and I want to give creative writing another go.
This has created a dilemma: Do I start where I left off or try something entirely new? A year is a long sabbatical and I'm definitely out of practice. At the same time, I see the major story problems in my unfinished novel and I have a clear idea of how to fix them.
I've had a couple of false starts in either direction. Before I go any further, I was wondering if anyone else has experience with a similar problem. I'd greatly appreciate any advice or insight into this issue.
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As someone who loves starting projects, and struggles with finishing them, I recommend you stick with your novel-in-progress unless there is a really good reason to abandon it. The reason is that you can't publish something you don't finish, but you can start any number of books without ever finishing one. So if you ever want to see a book project through to the end, you'll need at some point to commit to finishing one, no matter what happens in between. It might as well be this one as any other.
Sometimes there are books --like the massive, unfinished tome in Wonderboys --that are better off abandoned. But it doesn't sound like there's anything that solidly places this book in that category.
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Given the reason you gave up, I'd say continue with the same story. I would regard depression as an illness or at least similar to a car accident. I have never been disabled by such a thing, but if I stopped writing due to health or accident I would try to get back into whatever I was working on before (as Stephen King eventually did, when run over by a car).
If I quit a project for project reasons, like I can't figure it out, hate what I'm writing, feel like I have no good ideas --- Then after a few months of recovering from failure I'd probably start something new.
But if I just stupidly walked in front of a Twinkie Truck and spent six months in a hospital, in a daze watching Days of Our Lives with no way to change the channel: I think I'd get back to my book.
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I think, it fairly depends on how much you "remember" your original story.
For instance, when I do battles in X-Com: Long War with long breaks, it usually results in a gigantic mess-up with destroyed SHIVs and corpses of my best soldiers littered everywhere. But that's just an anecdotal evidence, as it can be just as much the fault of those aimbot-using Thin Men, or the endless swarm of Floaters.
So, try and see, if you can continue it, but if that doesn't work out, you still can create a new story, that keeps some elements from the original.
For instance, the original (leaked) Half-Life 2 was much more different than it's released version, out of which, many contents were cut, including the entire Half-Life 3.
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First, congratulations for coming out of that hole and taking up writing again.
It can be worthwhile to take up an old project. You can look at it again from your current perspective with fresh insights. Be ready that you might want to do extensive editing.
I wrote a novel to about 90% of the first draft while I was in university. Then it sat on a harddrive for a decade. I picked it up again after that and completed it, wrote a really powerful ending, and went over it two or three times editing and improving my - at that early time - writing with potential for improvement. Then real life happened again and I didn't touch it for some years again. Then, about a year ago, I dusted it off again and went over it with new knowledge about how to do this or write that, edited it a couple more times, throwed out one chapter, added three new chapters, and I'm now nearing completion.
I've had other works that I wrote and then left unfinished, and when I came back to them after a few years, I throwed them out. Sometimes a distance in time makes you understand just why a story doesn't work.
I suggest you read through this old text and check what you feel about it afterwards. Are you still convinced that it is a story worth telling? If so, go for it.
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