Do you know how hard it is to write a story that is tied to, and mirrors at the time, your emotional state, only to have your own life quickly and unbelievably changed around?
I literally don't have the same feelings now, that I did when I started Accidental Magic. Trying to maintain my existence in the real world has done a number on my creative juices and sent them in off in other directions. I spend a great deal of my time just re-reading my own story to remember why my characters were feeling the way they did.
Yeah, it's made the last chapter take for-freaking-ever, and for that I apologize.
I am working on the next one right now and I plan on doing nothing else today, mostly cause it is snowing badly outside, until the next bit is posted.
Ally Kat
Comments
I do understand...
Coming out to my wife last year was a "life changing" (for the better) event for me, and several short stories I'd started have languished since then (and, I don't believe I'll ever be able to finish them).
Best luck to you! My daughter would LOVE your snow! It's just RAINING here.
Annette
It almost sounds to me like
It almost sounds to me like what you need to do is bring the story to a conclusion, and then rewrite it with your current personal direction(s) in mind.
However, if the story is that much of a struggle now, then it might even be better to apologize, stop right now, and rewrite it the way that your muse wants to work. I could tell that you were struggling a bit with the last two chapters (they were a bit disjointed - almost as if there was an entire section missing), and this certainly explains why.
I think I can speak for most of us when I say "It's okay. You're writing for you, and for our enjoyment. if your enjoyment requires that you not complete it for us, then so be it."
BW
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Maybe it is time to move on?
I have a couple published stories that won't be completed because I no longer feel the way I did. Many of my early stories were centered around a Master/slave theme, because I was so bereft and alone after the events of my "outing". I write different stories now because much of the grief and dismay has literally burned its self out.
Lately, I have even found myself saying to others that "I love my life"!
Once I write a story, the idea of re writing it seems like such awful drudgery, and there is nothing to say that your feelings at the time were not completely valid. To be in a different place now can be a happy thing. :)
Khadijah
Good Stories
The best stories involve change. Maybe you could consider going back to those unfinished stories and creating a change in the protagonist that alligns her more closely with your current state of mind.
I know what you mean. It's hard to write in a genre that doesn't match your mindset. It's hard to read a genre that doesn't match your mindset. That might be part of why so many great stories here don't seem to attract a lot of attention.
Many of the "how to" books I've read about fiction writing say to never throw away anything, because you will later find a place to use it.
Give a little thought to your orphans beofre putting them on the curb -- unless they're the kind of orphans that need a good tossing.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)