"Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel."
~Napoleon Hill
It sounds so .........productive!.....to think of persistence in this way. It's enough to push you on through another whole day of writing blind into the book you haven't figured out yet.
But a little voice whispers, "Why throw good brain cells after bad? Maybe you don't know where you're going because there is no place to go!"
Not all ideas or inspirations are, in fact, smart. Not all of them will turn out. And persistence for persistence's sake makes as much sense as expecting to win the lottery when you don't buy a ticket. So, how to know when it's wise to carry on and when to call it a day and move on to a brand new idea?
If you are "writing out" an inspiration blindly firing on all cylinders, by all means continue. Don't worry about any of it making sense at this point. You have to believe in your own ideas, and you have to write them all out of your head first.
But if you are long past that stage and this idea has now seen six iterations, you might want to stop and figure out this monster. Who is the audience? What of this do they need to know? What is the best medium to reach them with this message or information? (After all, everything is not a book.) Article? Blog? Speech? Workshop? Book?
Have you test marketed any of it? When in doubt, ask for cold reads from likely audience people. (Notice I said likely audience, not handy friends or neighbors or someone who just owes you a favor.)Tell them you are just about to throw this idea out -- so they should feel free to be candid.
They can check the box:
Onward!But a little voice whispers, "Why throw good brain cells after bad? Maybe you don't know where you're going because there is no place to go!"
Not all ideas or inspirations are, in fact, smart. Not all of them will turn out. And persistence for persistence's sake makes as much sense as expecting to win the lottery when you don't buy a ticket. So, how to know when it's wise to carry on and when to call it a day and move on to a brand new idea?
If you are "writing out" an inspiration blindly firing on all cylinders, by all means continue. Don't worry about any of it making sense at this point. You have to believe in your own ideas, and you have to write them all out of your head first.
But if you are long past that stage and this idea has now seen six iterations, you might want to stop and figure out this monster. Who is the audience? What of this do they need to know? What is the best medium to reach them with this message or information? (After all, everything is not a book.) Article? Blog? Speech? Workshop? Book?
Have you test marketed any of it? When in doubt, ask for cold reads from likely audience people. (Notice I said likely audience, not handy friends or neighbors or someone who just owes you a favor.)Tell them you are just about to throw this idea out -- so they should feel free to be candid.
They can check the box:
□ Go ahead, throw this out
□ Wait, there's something good in this
□ Buy me lunch - I'll tell you how to fix it
It is VERY common for a finished book or article to have begun as something entirely different. Authors will talk about it at their readings or in speeches. It's a great reminder not to hold on to a particular idea just because you have it -- let your ideas morph, let your material develop, let it change and grow. You most often FIND THE BOOK in the doing, in the writing, in the editing. That's how lemonade happens. Honing skills, building improvement, making mistakes, getting feedback (or rejections) can be stumbling your way to success.
Hammering on the same idea with minor tweaks because you can't let go and you're just being stubborn...well, that's how MUSH gets made. There is a difference betwen stubborn and persistent.
Laurie
http://www.authorbiz.com/
