It takes a long time to write a book. 

And not just the first draft—also the second, third, fourth, and fifth drafts. Then there’s the time you allot for gathering initial feedback and editing. If you’re looking for an agent, you’re also doing additional research and work in the hopes that a publisher will eventually buy your manuscript, and then you might have to write even more drafts and make even more edits once that happens. 

With all that time and emotional investment before even a hint of reward from the professional publishing world, many writers are determined to push their manuscript through to completion. When you work so hard on something, it makes sense that you’d want to see it through to the end. And for a writer with professional ambitions, the end is people buying your published book. 

But the path to success is rarely linear. That never-say-die attitude, the one that’s usually useful for getting you through the writing process, could actually be getting in the way of your ultimate writing goals. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your writing career is to take that finished book and simply put it aside. 

How Many Submission Rounds Have You Done?

If you’re looking to sign with an agent, it’s totally normal to go through more than one round of submissions. After sending your manuscript out to a number of agents—paying close attention to their submission requirements—getting no representation offers isn’t a sign you should give up. It is a sign that you should rethink which agents are a good fit for your work. It’s also a sign that your outline and first few chapters might not be snappy enough to gain the proper attention. 

However, if you’ve gone through that whole process a few times with one manuscript and still aren’t receiving offers, that could be a sign that it might be time to give the book a break. 

Even if an agent really resonates with a book, that’s usually still not enough for them to take you on as a client. Never forget that there are a million things agents have to take into consideration. Maybe books in your genre aren’t selling right now, or there’s an oversaturated market, or the agent doesn’t know an editor who’d be interested—there’s unfortunately nothing you can do about any of that but wait until things change. 

Are You Out of Ideas?

If you’re taking suggestions from beta readers and editors seriously, and if you’ve worked hard on developing your own critical eye, then you probably have multiple solutions for any one problem within your manuscript. 

Is a character falling flat? Go back to character development exercises, clarify the character’s objective in every scene, and go over their dialogue to make them sound more authentic. Plot twist not so twisty? Edit out some of the early information you give readers and maybe plant subtler clues. Action sequences too confusing to be exciting? Track each character’s movements to catch moments where you gave them too many hands or forgot where they were in the room. 

But if you’ve done all that work and you’re still getting the same feedback? It might be time to put the manuscript aside. Sometimes endlessly fiddling with something isn’t the way to go; like with wounds, sometimes things need to air out and breathe to move forward. Forget about that manuscript until you can either read it with a fresh perspective, or you come to understand that maybe it worked best as an early effort in your writing trajectory and nothing more. 

What Would You Rather Be Doing?

Serious writers know better than to think that they’ll love every minute of the writing process. 

As you keep going back over the same words you’ve been staring at for as long as you can remember, you’re going to get sick of seeing them. That in itself is not a troubling sign— pushing through and doing the work so your readers can enjoy a thoroughly polished final product isn’t always sunshine and rainbows.

However, there is a difference between the inevitable drudgery of doing yet another draft or round of edits and feeling truly ready to move on. If you’ve really done your due diligence throughout the process and you’re left feeling not just frustrated but uninspired, that’s an instinct worth listening to. 

This is especially common with your first ever attempt at writing a full-length book. By the end of the process, you’ve developed many new skills, and it’s okay if you see your finished product as more of a learning experience rather than something you want to publish. You might even have a totally new idea, or you may have a newer, smarter take on your original idea that’s worth starting from scratch. 

Are You Enjoying the Journey?

It’s normal to feel defeated and depressed at the prospect of giving up on your book. 

But putting it away for a while isn’t giving up. Remember: you don’t have to throw it in the trash. Give it some time, and maybe that genre will be in higher demand. After finishing a totally different kind of book, you might find that you’ve figured out an entirely new way to attack old problems. Or you might find that the process of starting a new book goes much more smoothly the second time around. 

Moving on isn’t failing, so give yourself permission to put your manuscript away if that’s the right call for you. You can always pull it back out if you change your mind. 

Chelsea Ennen is a writer living in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog. When not writing or reading, she is a fiber and textile artist who sews, knits, crochets, weaves, and spins.