Netardapope
Sage
So, after countless months of arduous work and stressful writing sessions, I've come to an unfortunate conclusion. I'm probably going to end up scrapping my current WIP. Now, what does this mean? First of all, I'm still going to finish the first draft. It's currently over 200k words and it'll still be good experience for me to finish it. Even if I'll probably end up abandoning ship once I revise this work, I might at least get a comprehensive guide on what NOT to do when writing fiction. (Who knows? Maybe I'll love it when I get back to it?). But to get an idea of how precarious this is, the best thing that can happen to the story at this point is me rewriting it entirely. No revisions, a FULL ON rewrite.
I'd be willing to do this, because I love the characters that much. But I'll probably just go with another plot entirely. That being said, once I do finish this eldritch monstrosity that masquerades as my current novel, I want to know if there's a way of not allowing all my time on this...thing to have been an utter waste. I suspect that the key issues are in the structure of the story, so if possible, I'd like to know the best ways of spotting flaws in a story's structure. I was also wondering if it would be efficient to recycle elements that I enjoyed from the plot into the next book.
So far, the main issues I found are the following:
1. TOO MANY characters, I can scarcely find time to finish their plot arcs
2. The 2nd Arc is a collection of episodic storylines and morsels of world-building. In other words, it's completely irrelevant to the actual plot
3. I took too much liberty from the outlines I made of my story, to the point that I veered in a wholly different course. As a result, each and every one of my characters is emotionally-detached from the current "plot" I am weaving.
4. All of my characters are so powerful that increasing their strength further would require me to "up the ante" so that each conflict had the capacity of destroying a sizeable chunk of the world.
5. 80% of the necessary world-building for the story I'm trying to tell does not exist. (this issue is not that bad, since putting in the backstory should be easy enough of a task to relegate for revision.)
6. I'm starting to get the feeling that the majority of the scenes I wrote for this book are padding. This is partly my fault and partly because of my experimentation this time around. I played with a lot of new concepts that still intrigue me, but I feel were added much too soon into the story, and too many at the same time.
7. I didn't revise the book that came before this one in the "series". Some people can pull this off, and I wanted to find out if I was one of them. I'm not
8. Two important characters are too geographically isolated from one another. Think of it this way. Imagine someone created a story where they were chasing someone whom wanted to get to China. Now imagine that the MC, whom is the pursuer, starts off his journey in Minnesota. Whereas the villain starts the story about to leave Mongolia's southern border. Yeah.
So, have any of you done something to this magnitude? As a reminder, I'm still going to finish the first draft, as I stated earlier. If you wouldn't mind, which issues do you think should hold my priorities in fixing for my next shot at this? I won't let this get me down, despite being a huge time commitment. I had a lot of fun at some parts, and there are elements I plan on reviving from this old work. Anyone that thinks they know of a proper way to deal with this is free to share their opinions in the thread!
I'd be willing to do this, because I love the characters that much. But I'll probably just go with another plot entirely. That being said, once I do finish this eldritch monstrosity that masquerades as my current novel, I want to know if there's a way of not allowing all my time on this...thing to have been an utter waste. I suspect that the key issues are in the structure of the story, so if possible, I'd like to know the best ways of spotting flaws in a story's structure. I was also wondering if it would be efficient to recycle elements that I enjoyed from the plot into the next book.
So far, the main issues I found are the following:
1. TOO MANY characters, I can scarcely find time to finish their plot arcs
2. The 2nd Arc is a collection of episodic storylines and morsels of world-building. In other words, it's completely irrelevant to the actual plot
3. I took too much liberty from the outlines I made of my story, to the point that I veered in a wholly different course. As a result, each and every one of my characters is emotionally-detached from the current "plot" I am weaving.
4. All of my characters are so powerful that increasing their strength further would require me to "up the ante" so that each conflict had the capacity of destroying a sizeable chunk of the world.
5. 80% of the necessary world-building for the story I'm trying to tell does not exist. (this issue is not that bad, since putting in the backstory should be easy enough of a task to relegate for revision.)
6. I'm starting to get the feeling that the majority of the scenes I wrote for this book are padding. This is partly my fault and partly because of my experimentation this time around. I played with a lot of new concepts that still intrigue me, but I feel were added much too soon into the story, and too many at the same time.
7. I didn't revise the book that came before this one in the "series". Some people can pull this off, and I wanted to find out if I was one of them. I'm not
8. Two important characters are too geographically isolated from one another. Think of it this way. Imagine someone created a story where they were chasing someone whom wanted to get to China. Now imagine that the MC, whom is the pursuer, starts off his journey in Minnesota. Whereas the villain starts the story about to leave Mongolia's southern border. Yeah.
So, have any of you done something to this magnitude? As a reminder, I'm still going to finish the first draft, as I stated earlier. If you wouldn't mind, which issues do you think should hold my priorities in fixing for my next shot at this? I won't let this get me down, despite being a huge time commitment. I had a lot of fun at some parts, and there are elements I plan on reviving from this old work. Anyone that thinks they know of a proper way to deal with this is free to share their opinions in the thread!