To Bury or Unbury......

So, Nathan Bransford's post yesterday got me thinking a little bit. (He wrote about putting a manuscript in a drawer). See, the project I am working on right now is actually a major overhaul-total rewrite of my very first novel. A manuscript I have shoved in a drawer and pulled back out again more times than I can count.

This book has tortured me for years. I just can't leave it alone. I want to sometimes. It makes me feel a bit like a one trick pony to keep reworking the same book over and over instead of spending my time on something new. However, considering how ridiculously close I came when I first wrote this book, and how much people who read it, love it....and how much I love it...I just can't let it die.

So I pulled it out of the drawer again a few months ago. I don't think this is the way to go for all shelved manuscripts. I have several that will never see the light of day again :D But this one....this one I think has the characters, the voice, and the story to make it.

I've learned so much since I first wrote this book. And every time I pull it out, I'm filled with ideas on how to improve it. This doesn't happen with some other projects of mine. I read some, shudder, and rebury it as fast as possible.

But this one....this one wants to make it. So out of the drawer it came again, and it will hopefully be on its way to my agent very shortly :)

How do you decide when or if to bury a manuscript? And how do you know if unburying is worth the time or just denial?