Haven't been posting much recently as things have been on the crazy busy side. I think I may have gone a whole day or two without mahjong or non-essential internet surfing earlier this week. Things will likely remain insane until a cabaret/fundraiser I'm organizing and performing in on October 12 is done, but I think I've got my ducks in something close enough to a row to warrant some LJ-posting slackage. Ok, it's a shoddy, half-assed row, and my ducks are complaining about their working conditions, but it's a row of ducks, damn it.
I've spent the past few weeks revising a story that was driving me nuts with its lack of cooperativeness. If I had a large chunk of time to sit and work on it, I got bogged down even though I knew what needed to be fixed, at which point the internal editor would escape her cage and start running around and mocking every single word, and the next thing I knew my chunk of time was gone and I was still on the same dang paragraph. But if I had only five minutes before I had to run out the door, the story became like this clingy little child tugging on my pant leg and demanding that I play with it because it suddenly had all these fabulous ideas on how to move forward. Last weekend, the story finally became cooperative, which of course meant I haven't had a large enough chunk of time to give it the final one-more-time-through that it needs. But I'm determined to be done with the damn thing today. I want it gone so I can focus on something else...
Like novels. Let's talk about novels. I keep going from being excited about the revision ideas for mine to experiencing paralyzing fear and doubt about going any further with it because who wants another epic fantasy trilogy and maybe I should just work on something else because who am I to think I can do something interesting with the genre that a decent publisher will actually want to buy? It doesn't help that another idea started nagging me today. I have a short story I wrote a couple years back, and a lot of people have said it sounds more like the start of a novel. One or two people even assumed it was and asked me when the rest was coming. That got the old gears going, and I thought, "Yes, there is a novel in this." But I also thought the story still stood on its own, and it had gotten some complimentary feedback, so I kept sending it out. But now...
Something got me thinking about the story this morning. It has your standard issue medieval-esque fantasy setting--cue yawns from the many folks who are bored with that. So I started contemplating what other kinds of settings I could throw these characters into. I've been ever so delicately dipping my toes into the world of steampunk recently and thought, "Hmmm, would that work?" The answer was, "Yes! Not only would it work, but it would be like a hundred times more awesome!" So now I'm debating if I should throw the other novel on the backburner and start working on this idea instead, or if it would be better to let the steampunk idea simmer a bit more and continue with the revisions on the other one. Normally, having this many potential projects to work on is a good thing. Right now, though, it's making my brain melt.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
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3 comments:
Run with the steampunk thing while you've got enthusiasm for it, I say. Being on the front wave of discovery about your own idea while you're getting it down is the most enjoyable way to write... right? And it may spew out faster. Productivity = Good.
And it might be nice to have the revisions in the back of your mind, to go back to and pick at when you need a break from the steampunk-y thing... especially since they might be more comfortable to work on. A good de-stresser, maybe.
Not that I know anything about novels. At all.
Which story was it? One I would have read? I'd actually go for letting it simmer for a little while--perhaps jumping back and forth between novel revisions and story planning (worldbuilding, character development, etc.), giving each those clingy five minute windows to grab your attention =)
I think my solution will be to work on some short stories until I figure out which respective burner the novel projects should be on. :)
Dan, I think you did read the story. It was called "The Sleeping City" and, not surprisingly, had a guy arriving a city that was under a sleep spell. I want to keep the magic elements but incorporate them into a steampunk-ish world.
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