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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/32642
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

So speaking as someone who has "abandoned" a 50,000+ word novel and its 50,000+ word sequel that had been written and were in various stages of editing, I think I can help out a little. And the reason why I did are numerous and include real life butting in, a rethink of the universe lore that would render much of the story of the two books unsalvageable. This is despite beta readers loving the work and enjoying the concepts... especially for a few beta readers who were out of my demographic falling in love with it.

Now, abandoned isn't the best word for it... more like... delayed further work in favor of projects that will better handle the retool. Some characters might be changed and some might be omitted from future works or redesigned... but abandoned, no. Really, I refined it to such a point I need to do a full rewrite of the story.

I've wanted to write books (in this genre for this audience no less) since I was in the 7th grade and I have been in a constant state of changing, rewriting, and reworking, and redoing stories to this day. Evolved would be a better word: Some stuff has changed with the times and other stuff has died, unable to adapt. In a few rare extremes some concepts have stood unaltered through the test of time with only the slightest of changes. Sometimes the character works but the story doesn't. Sometimes the setting is cool but I can't populate it with characters to explore the society.

I don't think I ever abandoned a story so much as shelved it for later. If I have ever come close, the reason wasn't anything personal so much as marketability. This work dealt heavily with Vampire lore. As I was working out details, unknown to me, Twilight was becoming a thing and wishing to avoid the image of riding a fad, I put it away and moved to other genres that couldn't adapt elements as much. I might pick it up some day in the future, but right now I have no plans to put it back.

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