My "lost projects"
Every writer, no matter how successful he or she may be, will have novels that never worked out. Some will have many--possibly a whole slew of books that just didn't work, before that writer finally hooked onto the theme or genre which worked. I think I'm one of the latter. Of the nine novels I have worked on so far, here is what has become of them:
The Falcon's Flight (Life of a Falcon, part 1): Dead and buried;
The Dark Behind the Moon (LOAF part 2): Dead and buried, and good riddance, too;
Darkness in the Forest: Finished, but amateurish and far from publishable;
The Twilight Trilogy, Part 1: Finished, but the story won't stand by itself and I never worked on the other two parts of the trilogy;
Project Cold Witness: Approaching completion and submission (yay!);
Project White Light: I wrote two thirds of nine months ago, but the story and characters just don't work;
The Riven Path: Worldbuilding completed--project on hold until I feel like writing fantasy again;
Evil's True Form: 14K of decent material completed last summer, but I hit a major stumbling block--I'm keeping this project closed until I can give it the attention it deserves;
Project Silent Falcon: Research and prewriting in progress (I have high hopes for this one).
Phew. When they're all lined up there, it seems that I haven't achieved much of value. I've been writing for six years, ever since I was just over twelve years old. I guess I was right in starting early, but it just seems so ... wasteful, beginning all those grand projects only to be thwarted by my own lack of experience.
But maybe that's wrong. The experience I have now--experience gained the hard way, from far more failure than success--is serving me well in planning future projects, and completing the two or three old ones I'm keeping open. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Forward Motion, and to Holly's excellent and inspirational articles ... articles which singlehandedly kicked me out of the Life of a Falcon rut and into new areas. Maybe I was right to tackle ambitious projects from the beginning. Many of those novels will never now see the light of day, but the time and effort I spent on them is not wasted: it's provided the framework for the person I am today, and fuels both my hunger for writing and the inspiration that drives my new projects onward. Thanks to a combination of my own experience, Forward Motion's friendly support, and the hope and comfort gained from reading the accounts of other authors, I finally feel sufficiently equipped to write the stories I've always dreamed to write.
Project Cold Witness, although well over a year old, remains my finest achievement because I put my heart and soul into it. It wasn't an excercise or experiment, like many of the others. I wrote that book because I saw a fascinating story in a set of real-life events, and simply had to write it ... and even though I've always believed in careful planning, that book was very spontaneous. How ironic, for me, that my best novel to date took less than three days to plan and was finished in just 48 days.
Of course, it's taken nearly a year of polishing to get it remotely presentable, but that's what being a writer is all about.
Every writer, no matter how successful he or she may be, will have novels that never worked out. Some will have many--possibly a whole slew of books that just didn't work, before that writer finally hooked onto the theme or genre which worked. I think I'm one of the latter. Of the nine novels I have worked on so far, here is what has become of them:
The Falcon's Flight (Life of a Falcon, part 1): Dead and buried;
The Dark Behind the Moon (LOAF part 2): Dead and buried, and good riddance, too;
Darkness in the Forest: Finished, but amateurish and far from publishable;
The Twilight Trilogy, Part 1: Finished, but the story won't stand by itself and I never worked on the other two parts of the trilogy;
Project Cold Witness: Approaching completion and submission (yay!);
Project White Light: I wrote two thirds of nine months ago, but the story and characters just don't work;
The Riven Path: Worldbuilding completed--project on hold until I feel like writing fantasy again;
Evil's True Form: 14K of decent material completed last summer, but I hit a major stumbling block--I'm keeping this project closed until I can give it the attention it deserves;
Project Silent Falcon: Research and prewriting in progress (I have high hopes for this one).
Phew. When they're all lined up there, it seems that I haven't achieved much of value. I've been writing for six years, ever since I was just over twelve years old. I guess I was right in starting early, but it just seems so ... wasteful, beginning all those grand projects only to be thwarted by my own lack of experience.
But maybe that's wrong. The experience I have now--experience gained the hard way, from far more failure than success--is serving me well in planning future projects, and completing the two or three old ones I'm keeping open. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Forward Motion, and to Holly's excellent and inspirational articles ... articles which singlehandedly kicked me out of the Life of a Falcon rut and into new areas. Maybe I was right to tackle ambitious projects from the beginning. Many of those novels will never now see the light of day, but the time and effort I spent on them is not wasted: it's provided the framework for the person I am today, and fuels both my hunger for writing and the inspiration that drives my new projects onward. Thanks to a combination of my own experience, Forward Motion's friendly support, and the hope and comfort gained from reading the accounts of other authors, I finally feel sufficiently equipped to write the stories I've always dreamed to write.
Project Cold Witness, although well over a year old, remains my finest achievement because I put my heart and soul into it. It wasn't an excercise or experiment, like many of the others. I wrote that book because I saw a fascinating story in a set of real-life events, and simply had to write it ... and even though I've always believed in careful planning, that book was very spontaneous. How ironic, for me, that my best novel to date took less than three days to plan and was finished in just 48 days.
Of course, it's taken nearly a year of polishing to get it remotely presentable, but that's what being a writer is all about.
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