Some of them are ideas I had years ago, going back to reworkings of things I wrote in high school and/or college. Some of them are just ideas with nothing more than a few sentences detailing what a story about them could be. Some of them are multi-page entries, summaries of plots and characters, waiting to be moved into a separate file for fleshing out. A few are nothing but titles. And for the most part, they all share one thing:
They're stories I once wanted to write, things I look at now and say "Meh."
This probably bothers me more than it should. I think most writers, if not all, have more ideas than they could ever turn into stories, not even if they had several more lifetimes. More lifetimes only means more ideas, after all. But what bothers me is not having these half-formed stories, but looking at ideas that once excited me and now seem dull.
For example, earlier this year, I was plotting a dark fantasy novel. It had a bunch of things I really wanted to put into a story - ancient evils from beyond the stars, long-lost mind-warping magic, disturbing signs of the way the world once was, horrible secrets unleashed by the unwary and unwitting, so on and so forth. I went through two different plots with it, as per usual, then started working on a third when I realized I wanted to tell the origin of the story's status quo, not what happens when that status quo breaks.
Somewhere along the way, after I'd put together a basic plot, I lost interest, and I haven't touched that plotting document since March. And this isn't the first time. I have a full set of world notes in search of a story, and I had an awesome idea for how the way magic works there affects another race . . . back in 2012. I added that to my notes, and haven't done any significant work on it since.
I've written down so many ideas that I might never get to use, that I might never want to use. And that gets to me. Whenever I pull those older documents up, they just seem boring or ridiculous or convoluted to me, and I have no desire to work on them again. I wonder if I ever will. It makes me a little sad to think about this, because it feels like a waste. And yet, I know nothing good comes of forcing myself to work on something I don't want to do.
The one positive note I can bring to this is that I created Abraxas, the world THE ACCIDENTAL WARLOCK takes place in, back in 2003-04. And I set those dozen documents aside for many years before writing the book that brought me back to that world, which led to TAW's predecessor SKYBORNE, which led to TAW. So there's always hope. Ideas are never wasted, I suppose; they're just waiting.
I like your attitude. Nope. They're not wasted. :)
ReplyDeleteIWSG #215 until Alex culls the list again.
Thanks. It took me writing this to really realize it. ^_^
DeleteNot wasted, as you are learning to pull together ideas. When the right one hits, you will write like a maniac.
ReplyDeleteWon't be much different from my usual writing, then. ^_^
DeleteI love the idea for your dark fantasy novel!! Wait, pull it back out and dust it off - I wanna read it!!
ReplyDeleteSigh. No, I get it. And they're definitely not wasted ideas at all.
I think I will go back to it someday - dark Lovecraftian stuff appeals to me too much for me to completely turn away from it. But having two plots that I thought would work and then scrapped kind of wore me out on the idea.
DeleteI worked on a fantasy story for over a year before I realized I really didn't have the plot solidified enough to write it. I was spending all my creative energies on all the little details that hinted at the existence of an alternate world instead of what happened once that world was discovered.
ReplyDeleteI hear you. That's easy to do when you're putting ideas together. My current plot-in-progress was nothing but world ideas for months, and I only (finally) came up with a story to set in it last month.
DeleteI love all my orphaned projects. Sometimes, I look back at those old ideas. Sometimes I want to write them. Sometimes I feel like they're foolish. And sometimes they land on my to do list...
ReplyDeleteYeah, the next project is an oldie.
Good luck. ^_^ For me, Abraxas is the only old project that I've done well to dig up, as everything else I've tried to rewrite or rework over the past few years has either turned out badly or sputtered out. Hopefully that won't always be the case.
Deletel think the ideas have to spark and excite the writer to spark and excite the reader. Go with your instincts. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnna from Shout with Emaginette
I try. ^_^ I've just had so many times where my instincts proved wrong or said "Eh, we're done here" to not be wary about it.
Delete"More lifetimes only means more ideas, after all." Good point. I'm going to stop wishing for more lifetimes. Another good point: "Ideas are never wasted." Like they say on Shark Tank, all you need is one good one.
ReplyDelete"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one." --George R. R. Martin
DeleteKind of applies to writing too. ^_^
And on one hand, I know it only takes one good idea, one good story, to start a career. But I also know there are a bunch of published authors who never put out a second book. Grr. Arg.
You know, for me it's not the plot, it's the characters. I fall in love with the characters, and then I have to tell their stories. That's why I read too. I fall in love with characters. Truthfully, for me the whole story process has become about how the characters change through the story, not the actual "what happens." Maybe you just need a character who gives you the motivation to stick with it, eh?
ReplyDeleteThat could be part of it. The characters for my plot-in-progress are really fleshing themselves out and getting interesting, so I'm hoping that one turns out well.
DeleteEven if one of those characters STILL needs a name. O_o