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More than I can chew

Can anyone offer some advice for this problem?

I'm the kind of hobby writer that's generally gifted with great flashes of scenes and ideas for novels, but that never actually finishes anything. A few months ago I was going through some old things and found a few pieces I had started way back in middle school. These worlds and characters stuck with me over the years so I haven't had the heart to throw them out. Lately they've been pestering me so I finally decided to stick it out and finish them. I thought I'd be clever and combine elements together from the different stories to make one amazing world and adventure. The problem is that there are so many amazing things in my world that I want to include and my plot outline just doesn't allow for it. I'm concerned that what I want to create is waaaay bigger and more complex than the simple one-book novel I had initially intended, and yet I'm not happy with less than what I see in my head. I guess it's just a reflection of what I enjoy reading (LOTR, and Kingkiller Chronicles being among my favorites), but that still doesn't solve my current dilemma of having no idea how to pull off something so huge.

Do I revamp my plot for the sake of this world, thereby taking on a larger project? Or do I scale down my world to match my plot? Or is there something I haven't thought of?
 

Alex97

Troubadour
I know that feeling. I have a ton of different civilizations in my WIP, but bringing them all together in one story is a huge challenge. Due to my lack of writing experience I didn't really want to dive into a challenge that big so instead I've opted to write shorter stories based in one place in the world I've created. This way I can get practice writing with shorter projects and build up the lore of my world with a series of short novels that I can inject into the larger project I have planned. You could do a similar thing by writing shorter stories about your characters or world's pasts, then aim for the bigger novel or series when you feel more confident.
 

Saigonnus

Auror
I have only a little experience in this area, so take what I suggest with a grain (or pinch) or salt. I personally would take a step back and consider first that not every idea can fit into a single novel/story without over-burgeoning it. I would start with the most appealing ideas, or perhaps the ones that have the most background to work with and try to think of a good starting plot based off of just those ideas. I would at least mentally lay out the core plot A to B to C etc... for those ideas and then when I have a basic idea, then layer in other ideas that could serve as background, world details, secondary/tertiary plots etc.

If it were me, before I even start with the plotting I would go back and try to flesh out each of these ideas as much as possible; world-building, character development or whatever. Update them with what you know now compared to what you knew when you first wrote it down. That way you'll have a better idea of what works well together and what doesn't.

What Alex suggested is definitely something that could be helpful. I myself got a bit over my head jumping into a complex world/ novel or two before I really had the plot settled or the details outlined and as a result it stalled out from lack of experience. I have also been using these ideas for short stories and flash fiction for the purpose of fleshing out the world and building up the lore.
 
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Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
There's some good advice in this thread that's going on right now. It runs parallel with what you're asking. http://mythicscribes.com/forums/world-building/11255-when-do-you-stop.html

I was in the exact same spot when I wrote my first novel. I wrote it and well... it didn't turn out very good. Writing in general is like trying to fit ten pounds of dog poop into a two pound bag. When you bit off more than you can chew, it's more like trying to fit thirty pounds.

I'd recommend starting off small. Short stories are good, but if you want to write a novel, keep the story simple. You'll be surprised how complicated a simple story can get. Take a look at Star Wars. The story is about a farm boy going out to save a princess from the empire. Everything else around that is complication.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
I'd recommend starting off small. Short stories are good, but if you want to write a novel, keep the story simple. You'll be surprised how complicated a simple story can get. Take a look at Star Wars. The story is about a farm boy going out to save a princess from the empire. Everything else around that is complication.

I'm experiencing this first-hand at the moment. I started out with the premise of "boy meets girl" and I'm currently struggling with religious conflicts, elemental spirits, loss and death, family life, technology, magic, even more religion and the poor guy hasn't even met the girl yet.
 
You may have a lot of world elements, but how many themes do you have? Find one promising theme, and use the elements that relate to it, setting aside elements that don't somehow further it. When the resultant story is COMPLETE, find another theme and attach more elements to it. Repeat as necessary.
 

buyjupiter

Maester
One of the things that I've been doing lately, as I figure out how I write most effectively, is to take the larger epic story ideas and dial them down to manageable chunks (usually ends up being a day in the life of...but sometimes that effectively shows me how my characters have been forged by life experiences). I've been finding out how to do characterization effectively, and pacing, and dialogue, and mood setting, etc...whereas if I'd tried that in the grand epic novel that I have plotted out and yet to start, I'd have given up within the first chapter because I would have felt like I was flailing around in the story. I've written a bunch of short stories this way, where I could focus on one or two elements to learn how to do them and have a finished piece afterward that I could be proud of finishing.

Because I've approached writing in this fashion for the last six months, I have a bunch of different worlds created. At this point, they're mainly for short stories, but...there's nothing that makes them clash. I could combine pretty much all of my story worlds onto one Earth-sized planet.

However, even though the magic systems and the tone/mood of each of the stories work well together, the stories themselves are worlds apart (pardon the pun). There is no unifying thread between the stories.

And that's where your biggest challenge will come in. Is there a commonality, a theme, with the rest of your world? Is there a thread that the reader can follow?
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I would suggest the OP go with several short story to novella length works instead of a novel, with each short tale focused on a different character/part of the world. Have a major character from one tale play a minor role in another to help tie things together.
 
Hi,

I'm with ThinkerX, what you're describing sounds like you want to write a whole bunch of shorter works all related to a single world build. Combinging them all into one single work will create multiple headaches for you. Better to leave each short story or novella as a complete thing in itself, but link them into an overarching world. So if your world is Anadalai you would simply write each work as "An Anadalai Story."

Cheers, Greg.
 
Thanks everyone! You've all given me something useful to work with. I think in the short term I'm going to write some shorter stories in this world of mine. That'll get some good experience under my belt and get me my world/ character fix, if nothing else. From there, who knows? Grand Epic? Conglomeration of short stories? Maybe getting to know this world and characters more will spark my next step :)
 
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