I have a novel that I've been working on for years and years. I first came up with my characters and wanted to write about them when I was a freshman in high school. I wrote almost two chapters of that over Christmas break. A quite a few drafts and four years later I met my future husband and realised that there was no plot to my story... so I started over. Clean slate. I started logging my characters, making lists of their personality traits, lists about the country they live in or come from, the histories of the countries, everything. That's when I started to fall in love with my story all over again.
Then, this last semester, I took a creative writing class. That messed up everything. I look back over my story and realise how much revision I need to do on all those pages and chapters of writing.
There has to come a point where you realise that if you force yourself to write something, then it's not going to come out that great. I think that is what is happening now with my story. So I decided to start a completely different story. I've had this idea for quite a while, but I really had wanted to finish my first novel before writing it. (I also didn't know where I wanted to take the ideas I had for that story.)
I like taking a break from this story. After working on it for six years and not getting very far, it can be a little depressing. Starting a brand new idea from scratch is relieving, and makes me feel like I can use the things I've learned over the years in new ways.
So that's what I'd suggest if you feel like you're stuck with your writing. Try something completely different. You don't have to go to a different genre, just come up with a few characters in a different world and see where their lives take them...
No comments:
Post a Comment