How to keep a back-burner project alive I have this idea for a novel that I'm really excited about. This idea first came to me eight years ago. It's a historical project, and involves a lot of research, so I started that research...eight years ago. And then I put it to the side of other projects, because some of those projects were "working" in a way this sprawling novel wasn't. At the time, I was writing short, comical pieces that were getting me noticed online, and performing some of these same pieces at reading series where agents were taking interest in my work. The universe seemed to be sending me a message: get out in the world, be part of the literary community.