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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/32630
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Writing is rewriting. The first draft of a novel is commonly riddled with mistakes: the beginning doesn't grip, the characters aren't consistent, the plot has holes, the story lacks suspense, turns aren't foreshadowed and appear _ex machina_, the ending is dissatisfying, and so on. But that is to be expected in the normal course of things, and a revision will smooth those imperfections out.

Sometimes one rewrite is not enough and it takes a few passes to finish a novel. Tolstoy famously rewrote _War and Peace_ seven times. Hemingway rewrote the ending to _Farewell to Arms_ fourtyseven times.

But sometimes even accomplished writers have to give up on a project, because no amount of rewriting can overcome what appear to be fundamental flaws. Sometimes a novel cannot be salvaged – or the time and effort necessary make it unfeasible.

But how do you know? How can you tell when it is better to abandon a project, move on, and write another book? **What are the warning signs** that indicate reliably – or at least with a high likelihood – that a project has failed and I should divorce myself from it?

Original score: 19