Writers I work with—and if I’m honest, I myself—launch multiple projects, enthusiastic about every idea. We open a document, give it a working title, tap out a few paragraphs with loads of energy. Like the squirrel, we scamper around the Internet or library doing research, gathering quotes and anecdotes to incorporate into this shiny new work-in-progress.
A few days or weeks later, we abandon it, our sentences as sparse as the squirrel’s twigs up in that tree. The raw materials of a project—research, paragraphs, quotations—sit on our hard drive. Will we return to it and continue building or abandon it for projects with more potential?
Often we do abandon the project and scamper off to start another one.
Weeks or months later, we might open our Finder window or Google Drive and scroll through our archives, astonished to see so much unfinished business: half-drafted projects, a concept of a book, or the start of a post. We can feel like we’ve wasted our time and resources.
Are we quitters? Are we creatively weak? Are we people who love to start things but get bogged down in the messy middle, throwing in the towel when we can’t find our way through?
Our inability to finish can leave us feeling embarrassed, ashamed, or frustrated.
But that’s unhelpful self-talk. Instead, in this episode, we reframe it.
Listen or head to https://annkroeker.com/2026/03/25/are-abandoned-projects-a-sign-of-creative-weakness/ to read it and access additional related reading.
And to work with one-on-one, head to https://annkroeker.com/writing-coach - I can provide you with human support for writing you produce as the thoughtful human you are...no AI necessary!
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