James Chandler
Minstrel
Hello everyone,
I started my WIP back in 2006, might even have been 2005. It started with considering some themes I wanted to explore in a story, and I really wanted to do something different in the fantasy genre. Epic fantasy is my first love in writing, so I knew that would be my jumping off point. I developed a back story to set the stage for those, I imagined some really interesting characters, I imagined a number of cool scenes, and did a lot of research over the course of a few years, a little at a time. Many of those scenes have been chopped due to the "kill your darlings" rule. The more scenes I imagined or wrote, the better I got to know the characters, even if the scenes won't appear. Much of the research was just to make sure I didn't say something completely stupid.
But, there was always something missing. Magic played an important role in every version of the plot, but it felt like every iteration of the magic system just didn't work. Too vague, too contrived, too derivative. I have a file titled "Deluxe magic system" where I have hashed out various ideas and one of the notes said, "This is not Pokemon." I have had more than one epiphany where I thought of a way to really make the story unique, only to find out later someone else had already done something similar. I eventually reconciled myself to the idea that even if I could not do "it's never been done before," at least I could get to "it's never been done quite like this before."
I decided to get serious about finishing it in 2011, when I was laid up with a back injury. I actually wrote some 60,000 words and six complete chapters with parts of others. They were definitely first draft quality. But, I stalled out again soon after than. I am a terrible procrastinator, but the bigger problem was that life kept happening. I've been through some seriously tough times in the past few years, and temporary health issues have only been a small part of it. But, the biggest problem has been losing my vision of the story. Despite all the work, despite all the false starts, research, and idea juggling, there was still something missing.
In 2012, I set it aside completely and decided to move on. Without that missing piece, it would not be complete and all I was going to get was a derivative, hackneyed piece of junk. It might have some good or even great elements, but it would never be complete, I would never be proud of it. Even though I still believed there was Something to the story, something that would make it fun and really intriguing, I had not been able to identify what that was. I gave up on ever being able to. I started writing some new characters in a new setting and exploring different ideas.
I worked on the new story for a while before I realized I was trying too hard with it. The initial part of the story came very naturally, but then I was trying to force it to evolve into something bigger. But, I needed to get serious about writing if I was ever going to make it a reality, and on the "life" side of things, I had no more excuses, nothing really getting in the way. Back to square one, blank slate.
Only, not so much. After a lot of time in my own head, I realized the first part of the new story could be the first part of the old story. The old story would need to be adjusted, but I could use all my favorite parts of the old story and combine them with these intriguing new characters...BOOM, the old story had new life. But, the special something was still missing, I still hadn't discovered what would fill in that gap.
This time I told myself to just keep moving forward. I thought, I'll write the story with the new characters and dynamics and hope I find that missing piece.
The more I thought about how I could integrate the new characters, the more excited I got when I realized how I could use them. I got to a point where I was kind of stalled, but not really. I had two big issues I needed to figure out, but plenty of material to work with. Most important, I really needed to decide how my magic system would work. I started from the magic I knew needed to be in the story, then just started some serious informed brainstorming. I started bouncing some ideas off my wife.
Just last week, I solidified some ideas on how the magic would work - and it suddenly all started to click. The missing piece finally showed itself. Now, the ideas just keep coming. Just this morning I hit on a final piece of the magic system that I am super excited about.
I still have an enormous amount of work to do, and I am sure some of it will be as hard as anything I have already done and possibly harder. But, now my vision of the story is complete and I am energized like never before. For the first time, I really believe I can do what I set out to do.
I apologize for this becoming more of a blog post. I just wanted to share my personal success to encourage others. If any of you are struggling with your stories, embrace the struggle and keep fighting. If you really believe in what you are working on, it is probably worth pursuing. Good luck finding all your missing pieces.
I started my WIP back in 2006, might even have been 2005. It started with considering some themes I wanted to explore in a story, and I really wanted to do something different in the fantasy genre. Epic fantasy is my first love in writing, so I knew that would be my jumping off point. I developed a back story to set the stage for those, I imagined some really interesting characters, I imagined a number of cool scenes, and did a lot of research over the course of a few years, a little at a time. Many of those scenes have been chopped due to the "kill your darlings" rule. The more scenes I imagined or wrote, the better I got to know the characters, even if the scenes won't appear. Much of the research was just to make sure I didn't say something completely stupid.
But, there was always something missing. Magic played an important role in every version of the plot, but it felt like every iteration of the magic system just didn't work. Too vague, too contrived, too derivative. I have a file titled "Deluxe magic system" where I have hashed out various ideas and one of the notes said, "This is not Pokemon." I have had more than one epiphany where I thought of a way to really make the story unique, only to find out later someone else had already done something similar. I eventually reconciled myself to the idea that even if I could not do "it's never been done before," at least I could get to "it's never been done quite like this before."
I decided to get serious about finishing it in 2011, when I was laid up with a back injury. I actually wrote some 60,000 words and six complete chapters with parts of others. They were definitely first draft quality. But, I stalled out again soon after than. I am a terrible procrastinator, but the bigger problem was that life kept happening. I've been through some seriously tough times in the past few years, and temporary health issues have only been a small part of it. But, the biggest problem has been losing my vision of the story. Despite all the work, despite all the false starts, research, and idea juggling, there was still something missing.
In 2012, I set it aside completely and decided to move on. Without that missing piece, it would not be complete and all I was going to get was a derivative, hackneyed piece of junk. It might have some good or even great elements, but it would never be complete, I would never be proud of it. Even though I still believed there was Something to the story, something that would make it fun and really intriguing, I had not been able to identify what that was. I gave up on ever being able to. I started writing some new characters in a new setting and exploring different ideas.
I worked on the new story for a while before I realized I was trying too hard with it. The initial part of the story came very naturally, but then I was trying to force it to evolve into something bigger. But, I needed to get serious about writing if I was ever going to make it a reality, and on the "life" side of things, I had no more excuses, nothing really getting in the way. Back to square one, blank slate.
Only, not so much. After a lot of time in my own head, I realized the first part of the new story could be the first part of the old story. The old story would need to be adjusted, but I could use all my favorite parts of the old story and combine them with these intriguing new characters...BOOM, the old story had new life. But, the special something was still missing, I still hadn't discovered what would fill in that gap.
This time I told myself to just keep moving forward. I thought, I'll write the story with the new characters and dynamics and hope I find that missing piece.
The more I thought about how I could integrate the new characters, the more excited I got when I realized how I could use them. I got to a point where I was kind of stalled, but not really. I had two big issues I needed to figure out, but plenty of material to work with. Most important, I really needed to decide how my magic system would work. I started from the magic I knew needed to be in the story, then just started some serious informed brainstorming. I started bouncing some ideas off my wife.
Just last week, I solidified some ideas on how the magic would work - and it suddenly all started to click. The missing piece finally showed itself. Now, the ideas just keep coming. Just this morning I hit on a final piece of the magic system that I am super excited about.
I still have an enormous amount of work to do, and I am sure some of it will be as hard as anything I have already done and possibly harder. But, now my vision of the story is complete and I am energized like never before. For the first time, I really believe I can do what I set out to do.
I apologize for this becoming more of a blog post. I just wanted to share my personal success to encourage others. If any of you are struggling with your stories, embrace the struggle and keep fighting. If you really believe in what you are working on, it is probably worth pursuing. Good luck finding all your missing pieces.
Myth Weaver
Archmage
