How do I know if my creative work is worth continuing or should I quit?

This question sits at the heart of what Murasaki Shikibu understood: the difference between persistence and pretense. She didn't write *The Tale of Genji* because she was certain it would last—she wrote it because the work itself demanded her attention, her observation, her particular way of seeing. Start by asking whether the work still teaches you something about yourself or the world. Does it require your continued attention? Are you learning through making it, or are you repeating what you've already learned? The second question is harder: are you making this work for an audience that exists only in your imagination, or are you genuinely in conversation with people who receive it? Neither answer disqualifies you, but one is sustainable and one isn't. What often looks like "quitting" is actually redirecting—finding the form your creativity actually wants, not the form you decided it should take. Before you abandon the work, examine it closely. What specifically feels stuck? Is it the practice itself, or the story you've told yourself about what it should become?