Then, sometime about 1998 or 1999, I decided I had some good material in that Frodo-return tale, and some good themes to work with. I just needed to write an original story using the good stuff. So I started writing, and while I tried not to make it a case of "change the names, same story," that's where it was going, and, not surprisingly, I got STUCK. Good and stuck, and no idea where the hell I was going to go with the story.
I can't remember when I abandoned it, probably around the end of 2001, or maybe sooner. I do know that by the time January of 2002 had rolled around, I had returned to writing short fanfic and entered a phase of writing for FanFic.net and hanging out on LJ and discussion boards and stuff like that.
Somewhere in there, in the middle of 2002, I realized that I needed to write, once and for all, a decent, definitive Frodo-return story. I had to work with Frodo and get his story resolved so I could move on to working with my original character and not get HIS story mixed up with Frodo's. The boys share some similarities, but they really do have different tales to tell. ;-) I got halfway through the story, and had notes for the other half of the story.
Then NaNoWriMo came along. I "temporarily" set aside the Frodo fic and wrote a completely different and thoroughly bizarre magnum opus that served as catharsis for my FrodoAngstObsession, and entered NaNo hoping it would unlock my novel writer's block.
Long story short: It did. ;-) Eventually.
In the midst of NaNo 2002 came all the life-transition corporate-crap angst that I already detailed last winter. My life as a writer went on a brief hiatus while I did the grieving and getting on with life process. My interest in fanfic dropped away. My interest in novel writing dropped away. I did other stuff and worked on rebuilding my life.
Then, sometime late in the winter, I suddenly KNEW exactly where my previous original-novel attempt had gone wrong, and I then KNEW exactly where the original novel needed to go, and how it would be shaped, and how it would end.
And that's what I'm working on, now. I have the beginning chapters, and the ending chapters, and I'm working on filling in the middle. And I think it's going to work, this time.
But the story doesn't end there. Just this past week I suddenly started wanting to write my Frodo story, get it finished and put up on the web. And my insights about Frodo and how he experiences "Grace" in the story I'm writing gave me compare-and-contrast insights about my Original Character and how he experiences "Grace" in the course of his own story. And I'm still writing my original novel, even as we speak.
What a ramble. The bottom line: Hang in there. Honor the process. Don't assume a fallow time means it's all over. And let this story be what this story wants to be. Meander, listen, let it go where it will, and one day, all the pieces will fall into place and you'll say, ah! it's so bloody obvious! how could I have not seen it all along!
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Let me tell you about the novel that did not want to be written, Part Two
Date: 2003-08-04 03:51 pm (UTC)I can't remember when I abandoned it, probably around the end of 2001, or maybe sooner. I do know that by the time January of 2002 had rolled around, I had returned to writing short fanfic and entered a phase of writing for FanFic.net and hanging out on LJ and discussion boards and stuff like that.
Somewhere in there, in the middle of 2002, I realized that I needed to write, once and for all, a decent, definitive Frodo-return story. I had to work with Frodo and get his story resolved so I could move on to working with my original character and not get HIS story mixed up with Frodo's. The boys share some similarities, but they really do have different tales to tell. ;-) I got halfway through the story, and had notes for the other half of the story.
Then NaNoWriMo came along. I "temporarily" set aside the Frodo fic and wrote a completely different and thoroughly bizarre magnum opus that served as catharsis for my FrodoAngstObsession, and entered NaNo hoping it would unlock my novel writer's block.
Long story short: It did. ;-) Eventually.
In the midst of NaNo 2002 came all the life-transition corporate-crap angst that I already detailed last winter. My life as a writer went on a brief hiatus while I did the grieving and getting on with life process. My interest in fanfic dropped away. My interest in novel writing dropped away. I did other stuff and worked on rebuilding my life.
Then, sometime late in the winter, I suddenly KNEW exactly where my previous original-novel attempt had gone wrong, and I then KNEW exactly where the original novel needed to go, and how it would be shaped, and how it would end.
And that's what I'm working on, now. I have the beginning chapters, and the ending chapters, and I'm working on filling in the middle. And I think it's going to work, this time.
But the story doesn't end there. Just this past week I suddenly started wanting to write my Frodo story, get it finished and put up on the web. And my insights about Frodo and how he experiences "Grace" in the story I'm writing gave me compare-and-contrast insights about my Original Character and how he experiences "Grace" in the course of his own story. And I'm still writing my original novel, even as we speak.
What a ramble. The bottom line: Hang in there. Honor the process. Don't assume a fallow time means it's all over. And let this story be what this story wants to be. Meander, listen, let it go where it will, and one day, all the pieces will fall into place and you'll say, ah! it's so bloody obvious! how could I have not seen it all along!
Keep us posted. ;-)