Where I am in the writing process: Oh lord. Don't even ask me this week.
My current problem(s): Deciding on what to freaking write. I haven't written in almost three weeks since I made the decision to finally pull the plug on That Damn Novel. I had been working on That Damn Novel for two and a half years. Had four different beginning drafts, over 100 pages of notes, but yet somehow could never really meet a middle and an end. I kept thinking WHY CAN'T I TELL THIS STORY?! Finally. I went over it, really looked into, and realized all I had was this back story. This whole story of who my character used to be when she was a teenager. How her family used to be before she ran away. All of her friends and relationships and how they were when she was a teenager. So I decided no more, and maybe just maybe one day I would just write the backstory because that's obviously where the story was at.
So after dumping That Damn Novel off in the desert, I decided to take a spin at my old WIP, The Unexpected Clash of Strangers. That story is fun. Gracie is the type of girl who should have to wear a helmet every time she ventures out into the street. I worked on it for two days before I decided to just take a break from it all. Last week, ideas starts brewing and I decided ya know what - I am going to tackle that YA novel and I'm going to do it for NaNoWriMo. So in the between time when I'm not mapping out ideas for what shall be called That Damn YA Novel (no, not really it has a title: Just Call Me Gus but I just like saying damn. It fits my mood this week) I'm also going to work here and there on The Unexpected Clash of Strangers just to see where it'll take me before I dump it off in the desert too.
My question this week: What have you done when a story just wasn't working right? Did you change the plot? Change your characters? Knock off a character? Give up? Or decide that maybe switching genres would be the best bet?
I shelved two novels when I realized they weren't working. Maybe I'll go back to them someday and be able to figure out what needs to change in them. Sometimes being too close to an MS doesn't allow you to see the flaws.
ReplyDeleteThat's hard! I mean I have a WIP that I've been going at for well over and year and I know that I won't be satisfied until I complete it. That being said I have two unfinished different drafts of this same story. And I finally realized that in order to finish i just need to make certain decisions and stick with them. Trust your first instinct. I'll let you know how that goes. lol
ReplyDeleteI shelved my first novel. I love the story and I hope that I could go back to it one day. My writing is improving each day and the first novel is so rough.
ReplyDeleteI moved onto a different genre (from historical fiction to fantasy). I am taking my time with this novel and editing as I go, hoping this will work out. But, it's slow. So slow.
I feel unqualified to answer your questions. LOL! I tend to quit and start something new. Argh. I think it's awesome you stuck with the other one so long -- wish I could be so dedicated to one of my WIPs. But I think you're not having a fun writing, then it was probably good to stop working on it. I bet NaNoWriMo will help, I friended you on there, BTW. Good luck!
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