Writer, I know your secret.
Whether we sit by each other at writing events or we’ve never spoken before in our lives, I know you have an incomplete novel you’ve decided to shelve for the foreseeable future. Maybe you talk about it at parties as a fun fact about yourself, or maybe I’ve just reached into the depths of your closet and skillfully plucked out a skeleton you hoped would stay behind that closed door indefinitely. But you do currently have a project gathering physical or digital dust.
But, Megan, how did you know?
Because I’m a writer, too, and I dare say every creative has a drawer project.
What is a Drawer Project?
By “drawer project,” I’m talking about a work in progress that, for one reason or another, has had its progress halted for an undefined period of time. This could be due to any or many reasons, including but not limited to:
- The story getting away from you
- Losing passion for the original concept
- Realizing you need to level up before you continue the project
- Determining it might not sell in today’s market
How Do We Know Every Writer Has Drawer Projects?
Well, if you haven’t already come across creatives talking about abandoned WIPs in their blog posts and newsletters, you can join our free online community because we have a post going up today asking our community members to talk about their own drawer projects. (There’s even deeper discussion on WIPs in The Write Gym, WA’s group coaching program for writers. You can get the details here, or jump right in by clicking here.)
Even without seeing other writers confirm it for you, it makes complete sense, doesn’t it? The creative process is messy and often unpredictable, and not every idea is going to be a winner. That’s just plain impossible. Not only that, but life happens to everyone, and that’s a common reason for books to be set aside—you have to leave the desk, and by the time you come back, you can’t remember what about the story excited you in the first place. It’s sad, but it happens.
So, Why is Having a Drawer Project a Good Thing?
It’s a good thing when you realize a project needs to go in a drawer. It means you’re not going to be putting work and words into an idea that tricked you into thinking it was viable, or that’s burning you out. It lets you get to your next passion project faster.
That being said, you might be wondering whether it’s a good idea to just permanently trash the projects you’re not currently working on. I don’t advise that! You can always return and mine for nuggets of gold you can use in a future project, or you can recycle the whole thing and turn it into something new if you never circle back to reinvent it.
But even if you never circle back, there is no such thing as wasted words, as I once said! You’ll have gained experience in writing your drawer project, and that’s valuable in and of itself.
Famous Drawer Projects
I will admit this heading is teetering on being oxymoronic. We’re never going to hear about the books that are still waiting to see the light of day or the manuscripts that had to be ripped apart for another book to live. That’s the nature of drawer projects. But we are lucky to have a few examples.
I’ll start with possibly the most talked about “drawer projects” of the moment: Taylor Swift’s vault tracks. If she’d never decided to re-record her older albums, she might not have circled back to her unreleased songs and we may never have heard “Now That We Don’t Talk” or “Mr. Perfectly Fine” or “Is It Over Now?” They were drawer projects. Now, whether you like her music or not, you can’t deny those are songs that have gotten praise and had their respective moments on socials—and they’ve put money in her pockets!
Wanting examples from the literary world? Take a scroll through Jane Austen’s timeline of creative works. Harper Lee nearly destroyed her draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. If you want a more contemporary example, Carrie by Stephen King was thrown in the garbage before his wife insisted he keep working on it. He’s also revised works years after they were published, like The Gunslinger, and while we wouldn’t think of a published work as a “drawer project,” it’s important to remember the words of Oscar Wilde: “Books are never finished. They are merely abandoned.” It’s true of both reading and writing books, don’t you think?
Now that you’re more comfortable with the idea of drawer projects, are you ready to take the leap and start your next novel?
You can do that with our 90-Day Novel Planner, featuring weekly and daily planning pages and space for notes about characters, plot threads, and whatever else you need to keep track of while you get the book done.
