Breakup: When to divorce your project

Here’s a post I wrote in 2011. The reference to “nine months ago” means 2010. My advice still makes sense to me!

Do you have at least one novel, short story or poem you’ve been editing for years?

Do you find tweaking words easier than starting something new?

If so, you may need to divorce that project.

Breaking up is hard to do.Describing gamers’ addiction to FarmVille in a Wired Magazine article (“Gamed,” July 2011), Dan Ariely explains why it’s hard to stop working on our creations.“Once people take all the little steps to build a farm, they become invested in it–and thereby value it more highly.The more complex and difficult and time-consuming a process is, the more we fall in love with our creation and the more we become interested in the game.”

Complex, difficult, time-consuming, and hard to give up. Sounds like my addiction.Does it sound like yours?

It’s great to be invested and to love what we do.But attachment to an old project keeps…