"A book itself threatens to kill its author repeatedly during it composition."
American Novelist
1963 -
Do you an unfinished novel laying on a shelf in your office? Do you have unfinished paintings hidden in a closet somewhere? I spent 4 years working on a novel before I quit to write a book on pet loss with my wife. Many published and unpublished writers have books they have never finished. And the same is true with painters. In fact, painters often paint over old paintings.
In an essay, Burn Before Reading, recently published in the New York Times Book Review (March 6, 2011), Dan Kois identifies a few novelists with unfinished novels.
- Saul Bellow
- Truman Capote
- Michael Chabon
- Junot Diaz
- Jennifer Egan
- Nikolai Gogol
- Chang-rae Lee
- Harper Lee
- Richard Price
- John Updike
- Evelyn Waugh
So take heart, my friend! You are not the only one who did not finish a novel, a painting, a song or a poem. The difference between those who are successful and those who are not is the successful artists and writers keep creating new works even if the old ones are not finished. So keep writing. Keep painting.
