Sometimes Quitting Is a Good Thing
By: Candace Hammond
Tags: Inspiration, Writing Life, Writing, Writers On Writing, Writing Tips

The one thing I almost never, as in never do, is quit a writing project I’m working on. Part stubbornness and part fear, I have always believed you just have to power through even when it’s just not coming.

For years that attitude helped me finish columns, plays, and books. But the thing is, I was never trying to finish a project during a pandemic, or during a time of unprecedented strife and stress.

When COVID-19 shut down everything and we found ourselves quarantined at home, I was in the midst of writing a play. A play I had been really excited about. As weeks turned into months, and as a lot of my freelance work disappeared, I had plenty of time to write. What I didn’t have was any passion or creative spark.

Early on in the pandemic, I was asked to write a short play for a local theater as part of a small collection of plays they would record and stream. Given parameters and a deadline, I wrote that in two weeks. Thinking I was now on a roll I tried to return to my other piece and …crickets.

My writing group members seemed to be having the same struggle so I didn’t feel so alone. When we’d meet on Zoom I would sometimes bring a few pages, but still, my passion for this project just wasn’t there. I hadn’t stopped loving this idea or the characters, I was just stuck. I began to think I wouldn’t be able to write until this election is over, to when everything feels less chaotic until I can see my family and friends again.

Everything changed however when I had an email exchange with a writer friend. I’d written to her to ask her how her writing was going, looking for advice. She’s written over 30 cozy mysteries and I wondered if she was writing. She wrote me back and said, yes, she was writing, and that as a matter of fact, spending a couple of hours a day in her imaginary little town was what was keeping her sane through all the ups and downs in the world.

What she wrote struck me. Maybe what I needed was a place that felt like an escape, a sanctuary, not an assignment. I’d sketched out some ideas for a Christmas story, a while back, something way off-brand for my writing. This story was, well, something right out of a Hallmark movie. It’s set in a place where the people are kind, they care for each other, and the problems are fixable. A place that seemed like kind of a dreamy place to be right now. Maybe I should follow her lead and take a literary escape myself? I decided it was worth a shot.

So I did something I never do, I stopped writing my play, opened a new file, and started writing a book. That was a month ago and I am now at about 25,000 words and eighty some-odd pages. And I have not missed a day of writing yet. My cozy Christmas story has, on its own, developed into something about much more than I thought it was, and I am loving my one to two hours a day in this beautiful seaside town.

Several years ago when I’d gone to a week-long writing workshop taught by best-selling author, Claire Cook, I learned something I’ve used on many writing projects that has been very helpful now. It’s really simple and might help you too. Write two pages a day, every day, seven days a week. The point was well, it’s a commitment, and it also keeps your head in the project, working even when you’re not writing. It’s doable and it’s not overwhelming. As you progress on a project and you’ve built the foundation, there may be days you write a bit more, but it takes away the urge to go all-in for hours one day, feel burned out and spent, and do nothing for many more. Knowing I am committed to writing two pages a day has kept me going.

And here is the strangest thing of all. Once I stopped trying so damn hard to figure out why this play wasn’t working, I figured it out! Letting go ended up being the best thing I could have done. I’m not returning to it, not yet. I am still a one project at a time person, but I’ve learned a valuable lesson — putting something aside that isn’t working isn’t a failure, it’s letting it rest. As writers, we all know that even when our fingers aren’t actively on the keyboard we’re still writing, and I had forgotten to trust the process. That sometimes you can’t solve a problem when you’re too close and trying too hard.

So for now I’m going to keep writing this book, jotting down notes about the play as they come to me, and enjoy my daily visits with the lovely folks of this imaginary town. The play will get done, I know it will. I’d like to say the next time I get stuck I won’t panic, but I know that’s not true, but hopefully, I will remember that taking a break isn’t failing.