Imagine trying to learn to paint while only working on one painting. Imagine the working and reworking and adding and stripping layers over and over again. Imagine going in and fixing piecemeal every flaw until the painting is nothing but patches, just to have to strip all that back again. I think this would be horrible, discouraging, and a hard way to learn. But in comparison, it feels like a lot of writers try to do this with their favourite stories, getting stuck in a loop of editing and reworking one idea over and over again but never really completing it.
I actually think completing wips is important, even if they’re not the best. I think it’s easier to learn from things we’ve finished and apply those lessons to new projects than it is to finish a project beyond our current skill level. To that end, I think it’s good to write short stories, and to start new wips when we get stuck on old ones, and to call wips done even if they’re not getting published. We can always revisit and revive old ideas, but we can learn more in the mean time by letting each new wip teach us something new.
