Erica posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:
I have this idea for a book that I came up with when I was 14 (ten years ago). I never got serious about writing it, but overtime as I matured my idea matured as well into a complex story. Now I’m pretty serious about getting this thing written. However, I have this fear that after I get it published that I won’t be able to let it go. Throughout the ten years my story has grown, like solving a puzzle, and I’m afraid that afterward ideas for it will still keep coming. Or I’m afraid that I’ll change my mind on something. Does this happen to published authors?
Randy sez: I’m sure it does. I occasionally think of things I’d like to change in my published novels. I know a lot of authors wish they could take back their entire first two or three novels so nobody could see what dreadful writers they used to be. (These are typically those “lucky” authors who sold their first attempt at a novel. Those of us who were “unlucky” and wrote five or six pieces of crap before we got published generally feel a lot better about our first published work.)
Here’s the thing: Write the book. There is one thing worse than wishing you could change something in a novel you published: Failing to ever publish a novel at all.
You can deal with letting your novel go when you’ve got it written. That’s a happy problem to have. But you can’t let it go until it’s written. Write your novel.
If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.