This week, Alida and Robert welcome Carlee Tressel to the Round Table. She’ll be filling in for Kathryn for a couple months. We discuss the death…or possible resuscitation…of book projects.
- When is it time to let go?
- Is resting it enough?
- Do you need outside feedback to make the decision?
- Why is it so hard to let go sometimes?
- And so hard to finish at other times?
- And in the end, you just have to….
VIDEO
AUDIO
Carlee Tressel is an independent writer and editor. She started her career in advertising and public relations agencies and now serves clients on a freelance basis, helping corporations, small businesses, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs tell their stories. Though her favorite thing to write is a long letter, she also enjoys writing fiction and creative nonfiction. Her short stories and essays have appeared in a variety of publications, including Car Bombs and Cookie Tables: The Youngstown Anthology, Casing Sport Communication, The Under Review, and Belt Magazine. Her first nonfiction book, the corporate history of a steelmaker in Pennsylvania, will be published by Parafine Press in January 2021. A former resident of Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Carlee now lives and farms with her family in rural Indiana.
SHOW NOTES
How do you know when a project is done? How does this differ with outside feedback? Should you have outside feedback? And how much feedback is too much? We finish by discussing when you should kill a project, done, or not.
What we talked about:
How do you know when a project is done? (2:30)
Do you need someone outside of yourself? Or can you find a way to do it yourself? (6:20)
How can you write past the finish line? (13:26)
How can you tell if your manuscript is suffering from overwork? (15:05)
What are we looking for as an artist? (18:23)
Can you have too much feedback? (21:33)
Should you pick an old project back up? (23:53)
LINKS
Want more about these topics? Check out:
SWRT 099 How to Prioritize Projects, and when to walk away
Have thoughts, questions, other examples? Join the conversation at the Story Works Writers Facebook group.
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Do you learn something every week?
Do you feel like you have company on your writing journey?
About Your Hosts
Alida Winternheimer is an award-winning author with an MFA in writing from Hamline University. She pursues her fervor for all things story as a writing coach, developmental editor, and teacher. Two of her short stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is the author of The Story Works Guide to Writing Fiction Series. Alida lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her Golden Retriever, Seva the Wonder Dog. She camps, bikes, and kayaks in her free time. Unless it’s winter, in which case she drinks chai by the fire. You can find more at www.alidawinternheimer.com.
Kathryn Arnold writes fantasy and anything else that sparks her creativity from her home in Kingston, Washington. She currently earns her living as an insurance underwriting assistant, where she also creates marketing and web copy. When not writing, she plays (and teaches) piano and keyboard in a band (or two), and is working on starting a ministry team with her husband. You can find Kathryn at www.skyfirewords.com.
Robert Scanlon was born in Australia, but whisked off to England when only a baby. After many years complaining about the weather, he did the sensible thing and moved back to Australia. Despite a career in the music industry, followed by decades teaching public speaking, Robert is an introvert who adores reading. Robert grew up on a diet of sci-fi masters, eventually discovering he had read the library’s entire science fiction section. Now he has to write his own. Robert is the author of Constellation, book one of the Blood Empire space opera series. Find out more at www.RobertScanlon.com