Has your story ever mutated?

[Hagan]

Does my writing mutate? Yes. Mutate and grow. Oh yes, and I wish it wouldn't.

Long works are not a problem, they are meant to change and grow organically as you get to a subject, section, or situation and really give it some thought. Smaller works in my mind, should not. But they do. All the time. And I'm sick of it.

Its been about six years since I've been able to write something less than 1500 words that stayed less than 1500 words. Almost everything I put down to paper or word processor wants to be a full on novella or book, and the more I try to keep it short, the more I see two digital fingers in a V formation staring back out at me as the word count climbs and climbs, the manic laughter in the background of my mind echoing around my skull to frustrate and annoy as, deep down, I know whatever I'm writing it going to spiral out of control. The more I fight it, the worse it gets.

Even this post in proving my point for me, being far longer than it should be yet each and ever line adds more subtext to how frustrating I time I have trying to keep something short. Its probably why I like Twitter. Short, sharp and to the point.

A story that mutates I feel is one that has a life of its own and deserves the time to help it change and grow, prompting more research to get the details right or to flesh out with sharper dialogue. So long as you are happy with the end result.

 

[ThinkerX]

'Labyrinth' mutated almost from its inception. It was supposed to be a 8000 - 10000 word short story or novelette, featuring characters lost in a giant maze. But as I wrote, pesky little questions kept coming to the fore: like where did this labyrinth come from? What were the characters doing prior to entering the maze? And what were they doing there in the first place? So, I kept tacking stuff in, and the first draft topped 40,000 words. I set it aside, thinking 'done'!

Then I came here...and after a while it dawned on me Labyrinth could stand just a little tinkering. Took a fresh look at the manuscript. Hmmm...make that a lot of tinkering. I thought, well, I do have a lot of pointless wandering about and fight scenes that don't advance the plot...maybe if I cut them I could knock this thing back down to 10,000 - 15,000 words. But by now, I was also revisiting the notes for that world, and decided I needed to account for that, and give the characters a reason to enter into the maze...maybe a 2000 - 3000 word chapter at the beginning.

Well...parts shrank and parts grew. Currently, that 10,000 word 'short story' is around 60,000 words, and might grow a bit past that with the final draft. Not only that, I've been contemplating a sequel for over a year now.

Then there's 'Empire'...a novella I wrote shortly after coming here, which is also slated for a fair bit of mutation...though not as much as 'Labyrinth'.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

A lot of the posts I've read in this thread seem to view a changing, or shifting, of ideas as a bad thing. I view it as a positive, as something to be encouraged. In the process of finishing a novel length work, the ways your work mutates from the original ideas is one of the aspects which can distinguish you as a writer. It becomes a different story, with a different mix of elements, and different characters which can all combine into something fresh, something unlike the stories and ideas you ingested as a consumer of entertainment. It's a combination of ideas borrowed, and ideas unique to you. It's archetypal characters in unique situations. It's events and happenings, old as human history, viewed from the eyes of different character types.

Allow that process to move you in new directions, BUT do not allow it to bar you from finishing. Yes, you will have a lot of revision to do so story lines, characters, sub plots, even major events all line up in the end. That's okay & natural. When you've finally completed the full first draft, then you'll have a piece to look at and decide what to keep, what to throw away, and what to expand upon. Then you'll have your lump of clay.