The Abandoned Projects - An Introduction

The Abandoned Projects – An Introduction

With my early works behind us, I thought I’d post and discuss the stories that I have started and abandoned over the last few months.

To start with, perhaps I should set out what my personal requirements are for the next story, if there is one. With those requirements in mind, I will then discuss why I abandoned each of the stories when I introduce them.

First is the necessity of having some sort of plot. A plot is more than a story idea, it is how a story idea is presented, how it unfolds. Now, as a painter, I often start painting with just the vaguest idea of what I want to paint, and more often then not, find that it won’t work and try something else, often just winging it. For a painting this works – a painting takes a couple of hours. For a story that I will be working in for the next year, this is simply too inefficient. I need a road map for the story. I don’t need to know all the details, all the scenes, even how it turns out. But I do need to know what the story is about and how it will unfold – at least until it begins to tell the story itself.

For example, I started writing The Lost Star’s Sea with just the first “Castaways” part in mind. That was the story that interested me. I had no definite idea as to where the story was to go after that. I didn’t know what would happen for certain – and indeed, the shape of “Castaways” changed rather radically from what I had envisioned once I started writing it. You can’t make characters do what you want them to. And as for how, or if, Litang would ever return to the Unity – well, I figured out a way, but by that time, the motive was lacking.

So I need a plot to get started, a framework to hang the story on, at least until the characters become established enough that they take on a life of their own, and drive the story along. And well, I guess I also need characters that I want to develop and explore until they can carry the story on their own. So I need plot and characters that I am looking forward to living with for a year.

Which leads us to my second requirement – I need a story and characters that I can comfortably live with for a year or more. Even before I start typing a story, I’m thinking about the story off and on throughout the day. With my rather short attention span, it might be for a minute here and there, but it is throughout the day. I live alongside the story, and since I want to have a nice pleasant life, I want the story I am writing to contribute to that. I can’t imagine writing a dark, brooding or violent story since I can’t separate the story from my life. What I want is a light, fun adventure story to daydream and write about, with interesting characters who I an imagine having clever conversations together. This narrows down the types of stories I can write down quite a bit, but there are still vast possibilities.

And that brings us to the third requirement – I have to fall in love with the story. It is pretty much that simple. I am fairly sure that if I sat down at my desk every morning for two hours, as I have done for three or four years now, and started typing, I could finish any of the stories that I have started this summer and had a new novel ready for 2018. The process would, however, likely be work. Now, if I was a professional author under contract to deliver a book, or had been dropped on my head as a young child and as a consequence, thought I could earn a living as a so called “indie publisher,” I would have no choice but to sit down and do the work necessary to write the book. But I’m an amateur who writes for the love and fun of writing, and I don’t want to work. I’ve never been all that crazy about work, and now that I’ve reached an age where I don’t have to work, I’ve no intention of working. And to be honest with you, I don’t think that I need to write another book. I’ve never been cursed with ambition, and though, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always wanted to write a book, having written and published four of them, I’m not strongly motivated to write a fifth one. So if I write another one, it will be because I have a fun new story that I’m enjoying discovering. A story with interesting characters whose conversations and interactions I find entertaining enough to go over and over again in my head, and then sit down and type the up for two or more hours every day. Whether I find that story or not is an open question.

My fourth requirement is that, as an artist, I want bring something new into the world. I want to create. What I create doesn’t have to be entirely new – that’s nearly impossible – but it should have my own unique twists and turns, my own voice, new characters and hopefully, clever new variations to the stories that have proceeded it. All four of my books owe a great to the older stories that I’ve read in my life, both in style and tone. I don’t mind citing the sources of my inspirations, be it Edgar Rice Burroughs or John Buchan. However, I’d like to think that I have created something new as well. New worlds, new twists on old plot devices, new characters and voices. In short, new stories. So, if I’m to write another book, I need to find a story that will allow me to create those new characters, that new story, or a unique variation of an old story set in a new world for readers to discover. So far, I don’t feel that I’ve stories I’ve come up with break out of the stereotypes they arise from, and I don’t want to waste my time redoing something already done.

All of which leads me to the final, and most important requirement. I want my next book, if there is one, to be better than anything else I’ve written before. It’s just that simple. I have to feel that it will be my best story yet. Once again, because I’m not under contract, nor delusional about the prospects of getting rich in indie publishing, I don’t have to keep churning out works, good, bad or indifferent. I can take my time, be selective, and patiently a’wait a story idea that checks off all the boxes and gives me reason to hope that when done, it will be my best ever.

So to sum it up, to write the next story I need to come up with a unique story and characters that I can fall in love with, that I can enjoy spending a lot of time with along with that will motivate me to make the effort to sit down and write for hundreds of hours not just fun, but, one that promises to be my best book yet.