The ultimate joy of abandoned projects

A murder mystery film script. A long-form on women making films in Tamil. A film criticism podcast. A merchandising company for freelancers. A screenwriters fellowship. These are but a handful of all the grand projects I’ve wanted to do over the last three years — and yes, you guessed it — abandoned.

They were in various stages of development. The murder mystery has a story, but no screenplay. Long-form has research but no outline. For the podcast, I reached out to collaborators and then chickened out. These aren’t ‘ideas’ that are in my head. They are projects I once believed were viable, and later realised they’re not. Therefore, altogether stopped. Or paused until its time comes.

I don’t regret any of this, by the way. My satisfaction comes from trying new things and taking on new challenges. To me, the joy of having tried it supersedes the actual result of it. Of course, I didn’t put money into any of these, so, technically all I lost was time. And this was all time well spent.

What I want to tell you here is: If you’ve started several things and not completed all of them, it’s just fine. Having tried and learned is better than not having tried at all. Introspect, understand, learn and find your next project. You’re not the only reason something didn’t work.