I’ve been keeping up with my bizarre new ritual of getting up about an hour early every morning to spend some time on my writing. It’s allowed me time to catch up on other people’s blogs, check my email, try and find publishers accepting novella submissions (which is turning out to be a lot harder than I thought), check Facebook…basically do anything but write.

It’s not that I don’t want to write. On the contrary, I’m itching to write. I did write another flash fiction piece, but I’m anxious to write something a little longer. The problem? To borrow a phrase from Ned Flanders, I’m in a dilly of a pickle.

I have a rough draft just sitting there, waiting for me to work my magic, but the magic well appears to have run dry. I see (some of) the problems with it, but haven’t had any light bulbs going off about how to fix them. And so I sit. And read. And wait. And nothing comes.

I’ve read that the hardest part is getting the idea out of your head and onto the computer. Once the rough draft is out of you, whatever you are left with can be shaped and fixed. I’m at a loss here, and don’t see an immediate solution. I guess what I’m wondering is…

Is it a cardinal sin to just set a WIP aside and start a totally new project?

Of course, even if I do that, I’m not totally ready to begin on my new project either. I’m still researching some, and I’m trying to outline and develop the plot a bit more before I start writing. Am I transforming from a pantser to a planner? That’s a topic for another post.

So what’s the popular opinion among the other writers on WordPress? Commit to finish the project before starting a new one, come hell or high water, or start something new and resolve to go back to it later? Of course, there’s also a third option – finish editing the novella I pulled back from submissions. God, there’s more that I could be doing than I realized…your opinions and advice are encouraged and welcome.