Writing Partner: Letting Go

I’m going to try and make this update as brief as possible. To linger would be sending a mixed message. I’m nearly done with my book. Still working on the title, but I digress. If I focus and keep at it, I will be sending it out to my first round of beta readers this weekend. This means, with any luck, I’ll be working on something new next week.

None of that is news, I said as much in my last update, but I found myself doing something strange this week. I picked up a different writing partner for the final leg of work.

He’s not great, as you can see. It’s a cygor from the Warhammer Age of Sigmar line and was meant to lead a small group of Tzeentch worshiping beastmen. The minotaur turned out well, but I’ve never been happy with the cygor.

Because of his size, he has lived prominently on a shelf in my office. His one eye staring me down. Judging me. And there he sat, staring a hole into me for over two years, until this week.

This week, in the final stretch, he caught my eye. My thought was I would fix him while I finished this book. Both have sat unfinished for years. Both could be projects worth refining. But, looking at the cygor I suddenly wondered if I could really finish my book this week. Then a thought crossed my mind, maybe my book could use one more edit too? Was I rushing this?

I started by giving it a brown wash to darken the skin tone and make it more natural. Then I sent a picture of it to a friend of mine to see what he thought should be the next step. He told me that he’s doesn’t usually pick old projects back up again. Instead, his suggestion was to paint something new.

Looking back, I think this has been a problem for me. I have, at multiple times, sunk years into projects I should have just let go of. Do I have a hard time letting projects go? Even with this book, have I held on to it for too long?

So I put the cygor in a drawer and closed it. Likewise, I need to finish this book and move on. No more rewrites, no more fiddling. It’s going to beta readers this weekend. Is that technical done, no, but it’s the first step to genuinely letting it go. I’m not going to grow unless I write new content, so it’s time to start.