Letting Go

[jenna]

Well, I have made the rather drastic decision in the last couple of days to shelf my main project indefinitely.

This is the book I started on about 4 and a half years ago, and I have put in a lot of hours researching, outlining, writing and editing it. I'm not sure how many words I'd completed (if you remember the laptop theft debacle, I would have to re-enter all of my handwritten pages to find out, and that's a massive job, especially with my handwriting!), but it was quite a sizeable chunk.

The problem is, I have started to look at it a lot more objectively and realised just how much work the plot needs. There are big gaps that need to be filled, and the story runs to quite a specific timeline, so there needs to be action for three quarters of the book before an event happens, and I still need to decide what a lot of that should be. Also, the opening of the book is not strong, and I think one of the main characters needs a complete personality overhaul.

This story I had planned as a trilogy, but the story for the second book is incomplete, and the story for the third book is non-existent, except for the big, exciting finale.

In the past year I have dropped off in writing a lot, partially due to work commitments (I've been working 6-7 days a week for a year, quite tiring!) but also partially due to being a bit disheartened and overwhelmed with the work that still needs to be done. When I wrote my outline I thought that it would cover a lot more space than it did, (which is typical of me, I have problems with depth perception lol, it's why I'm always bumping into things!) it was only when I got so far through it that I realised my mistake. My characters have been kind of looking up at me, tapping their feet, waiting for things to happen..

So I have decided to run with another idea I've had, which is a stand-alone book. I think this is a much better idea than trying to tackle a trilogy right off the bat. Also, the story is a lot more workable, it will be so much easier to add and subtract chapters as I see fit, without effecting the overall story too much.

I feel like the work I've done in the past few years has not been in vain, as I've learned a lot about writing, about characterisation, settings, descriptives, research, everything. But I had to make the decision to just let it go... I hope I'm doing the right thing!

 

[ctg]

*hugs* Of course you are making the right decision, but don't say that you will put your baby away forever, as one day you might want to take it out and give it another look.

 

[Overread]

hmmm well yes - if you are getting stale then by all means start something fresh! something new and exciting!
But I would also caution and say don't shelve it for all eternity - your mind will still think about it in the background and oneday you will have the idea to spark off the project again!

also -(though this might not be "professional") I would not try to limit your story to books - write the story out - get it ironed out and get it flowing right - then look to length and structure in a book. Why this way? Well I think a story must be solid before you alter it for publishing - a solid story means you can get away with a little padding here and there and a few repeats (catch-up/reminders in book 2) without it affecting the story - if you write them in first I think it would start to become functional and "correct" but possibly not as solid a tale as it could be

just thoughts

 

[Anthony G Williams]

I agree with the advice not to give up on it, just shelve it unitl you feel like picking it up again. My first book took six years to complete (I did it in three separate spells of effort, years apart). My second one was faster, but I still shelved it for a year after I got stuck with the plot half-way through. Then inspiration struck one night, and I finished it.

 

[jenna]

Yes, I don't want to give up on it entirely, as I've spent so much time and energy on it, and I honestly believe it's a promising premise (try saying that 5 times fast!). I just don't want to get stuck in this trap of thinking that I can't focus my full attention on another project for the time being, just because I started the other one first...

 

[flynx]

I'll go opposite and say delete it. All of it. Throw it in the bin. If you come round to the idea that it was a good thing after all then you can start again.

The trouble is that in another three years there won't be a single atom of you that is the same person that started that book. You'll be co-writing.
All the things that you've learned in the past 4 and a half years won't desert you because you threw away the script, but you'll be a different person.

Did you know what disambiguation meant when you started writing? do you know what it means now? (just an example I have no idea if you ever knew or even cared what disambiguation meant) But through writing what you did write and learning what you learned in that process then you're going to find it less difficult to include the word disambiguation.

Starting the same story will lead to a completely different outcome because you're a completely different person. Be brave. Throw it.

 

[Overread]

I understand what you mean about change flynx and how going over an older work will make you want to re-write the whole thing - but you cannot re-write something that has been deleted. And if you were to if you ever went back to write it again then you would always be tormeted by little things you lost (the name of a character, the location that something happened - the line of thinking that got a certain character to a place)

 

[flynx]

I understand what you mean about change flynx and how going over an older work will make you want to re-write the whole thing - but you cannot re-write something that has been deleted. And if you were to if you ever went back to write it again then you would always be tormeted by little things you lost (the name of a character, the location that something happened - the line of thinking that got a certain character to a place)

I always look at it this way: the main reason I don't carry a notebook around with me (besides not being able to understand my own notes), I reckon that if I can't remember the idea then it just wasn't all that good to begin with.

A really breathtaking idea will have me stopping the car and messaging myself on the phone but otherwise, meh.

I had an idea for a short story last week just as I was going to sleep. the wife asked me what was wrong. I told her I'd had an idea. She suggested I pick up the lap top and write it down. I said "If it's any good I'll remember it tomorrow."
It's still rolling around in my head.
Works for me.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

I wouldn't do it. OK I appreciate you have a massive task re-typing the hand written stuff onto the PC however, Mary Poppins had it right (OK OK so I used a power word I'm sorry). By all means start a new project but type a page a day of the old stuff (it dosen't have to be all in one lump) you may get back into the flow and can use it as a opportunity not a task.

 

[Green]

I'd agree with flynx on this one. Chuck it, and you'll feel better about it - it'll be too late to do anything about it, after all, and you'll be able to move on with no second thoughts.

Although I see what Overread is saying about not being able to rewrite something you've deleted, I don't think that's a bad thing. If you came back to it in two years, from the start, you'd write something different, something better. You'll be a different person. A better writer.

If you left it on the shelf and came back to it in two years, I bet you'd hate what you'd written, and you'd feel bad about it when you tried to do something with it. You've already lost most of it. Just go that extra step.

 

[Anthony G Williams]

I certainly wouldn't delete it. If I did, I could never bring myself to write a similar book again - I'd keep thinking of all those ideas and all that work being wasted.

Good ideas may pop into your head at any time, and they don't necessarily stay there. Great ideas will, sure, but no individual usually gets many of them, and you can't write a book based on the expectation that you're going to populate it with nothing but great ideas (and if you are lucky enough have that many of them, you probably won't be able to remember them all anyway!)

When I look back on work I've written in the past, I find some parts I want to rewrite, but others I'm really pleased with and want to keep. I think that's the best solution for your project. If you ever want to return to it, accept that you may well do a lot of rewriting, but re-reading the ideas you had then may well spark your creativity once more, so don't throw your baby out with the bathwater!

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

On a practical note. Whenever I've done a chunk of writing it takes mere moments to slap a CDR in the machine and copy the latest version to something permanent. I suppose this may be preaching to the converted if so please forgive.

 

[Lith]

Lock it in a drawer and forget about it, but DON'T toss it! You won't be the same person in a few years, and going back to rewrite it will yield a different book, but it's just as likely to be a better book as not. Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice were both later rewrites of Austen's early work. Or it won't be better. Or you will no longer be interested in rewriting it, having found newer, better ideas. There's no rule that you have to pick it up and finish it. But it's still a record of where you've been. (I used to throw out drawings I didn't like, and there are a few of them I very much wish I hadn't tossed.) The beauty of computers is that you can keep the data without taking up much space, and can keep it out of sight, out of mind, with it still being there if you find you really need it.

I find my 'throwaway' ideas are usually the best, and if I don't write them down when they seem not to matter, I WILL forget them.

 

[Overread]

ps - if you are going to keep it (and I strongly suggest you do ) I strongly recommend backing it up on at least 2 different cds or DVDs!
hard drives had a nasty habbit of breaking just as you want that key information - so back it up on the disks. (its also easier to find a disk then it is to hunt around for a random file burried in years of computing!)

as to why 2 CDs - well they are cheap and the second one is extra insurance!

 

[Lith]

Yeah, what OR said. 2 disks, stored in separate places not subject to heat extremes or other problems, including scratching. Clearly labelled, with dates of burning and major contents written on the CD.

CDs aren't subject to all the problems of HDs and CDR's can't be accidentally erased when one's in a hurry.

 

[Anthony G Williams]

I'm sure we've all learned about the importance of backing up the hard way (I know I did!).

I have two hard drives on my PC, and back-up whatever I'm doing to the spare at the end of each session. I also back-up the work to a USB memory stick, and occasionally download the contents of that to a separate notebook PC to ensure that it mirrors what's on my desktop. Finally, I burn a CD of my backup files every now and then. I think that covers just about every eventuality except that of my house burning down...

 

[jenna]

I have become somewhat back-up obsessed now! I keep 2 copies of my work on USB keys (what I have left...), one is either at home or with me, wherever my computer is NOT, and the other is in my letterbox. That is because my letterbox is right down the other end of my apartment complex, so even if my apartment burns down, god forbid, then it should stay relatively safe. Unless we get hit by some sort of asteroid or beam from an alien space ship, in which case I don't think my writing will be my first priority anyway
If there's one thing the whole bag-theft fiasco (or theft-gate as I call it) has taught me, it's to be super super paranoid about losing my intellectual property, which after all is the most valuable property there is...

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Don't chuck your work!

A message from HJ.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

I'm sure we've all learned about the importance of backing up the hard way (I know I did!).

I have two hard drives on my PC, and back-up whatever I'm doing to the spare at the end of each session. I also back-up the work to a USB memory stick, and occasionally download the contents of that to a separate notebook PC to ensure that it mirrors what's on my desktop. Finally, I burn a CD of my backup files every now and then. I think that covers just about every eventuality except that of my house burning down...

I see your just paying at the backup thing.

Surely you have a shed or a garden.

An important tip here is to leave a map for future generations to use to find your 'Gems' or 'Peices of Eight'. Or you could just paint a big yellow cross on the lawn being sure to bury the 'golden disks' under the shed.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Tee hee!

I like to get the most important sections of my work tattooed on my buttocks, for the ultimate back up.