Sometimes enough has to be enough

It's amazing sometimes to look back on once's writing. I've recently been putting together a package that contains some chapters from the first book in my fantasy trilogy, and when I checked the dates for each file on the computer I realized I had not worked on any of that first book in a year and a half. I've either been working on the second or third books, or more recently, short stories.

Some of that first book rang true to me. But some of it ... man, it stank.

I think part of this is that something like three hundred thousand words later, I'm a better writer. I'm not saying I'm a great writer, but a better writer.

It also dawned on me that I could sit down and rewrite parts of this first book, make it even better.

But I won't. At least not for now.

Why, one might ask? It's not necessarily laziness, though I am busy with other things at the moment. It's because that first book is already on its fourth or fifth draft, and while it could be better, I know I have to set it aside at some point. If I spent the next few months making that first book better, by the time I finished, I'd have to start over again.

I could keep improving that book forever.

So, for now, I'm saying enough is enough. That book is going to have to stand as it is for the time being because ... well, because it has to. Sooner or later you have to throw your babies to the wolves and hope for the best, and that's kind of what I'm doing.

Now, if an editor or publisher at some point wants me to make changes, that's a different thing. But until then, or by some miracle I run out of other writing project, I think that first book ("City of Rogues") is going to have to stand on its own.