Has your story ever mutated?

[Anberith]

I got curious as this is happening for the 150th time to me with this story, if anyone else is or has gone through the same thing. The fact is that I have been working on a story since I was around eleven-twelve years old, it is an epic fantasy. My problem is that every time I start working on the core story and it starts to grow it mutates into something entirely different from what I started with. I am outlining and there are central characters that are still the same and the basic story line is still there, with a bunch of favorite scenes of mine that just have to be there but every time and without warning from starting back at square on the original plot, a few weeks into it the story is almost unrecognizable.
Sometimes I have gone so of track that I have even changed the main characters, but when I realize that I am now just working on a completely different story i tend to go back and pick up the original story again.

I had this moment a few months back when I realized how far I had gotten from my original story that I went back to the one I had wanted to write so many years ago. I started to work on it and expand it, adding characters, plot and so forth. But now once again and rather by surprise I have changed major parts as the characters get deeper back story and I add certain elements. Yes there where a lot of gaping holes in the plot and a lot of unanswered questions but I am wondering if this is a normal process or do I have such epic ADD that I will never completely stick to one story and always end far off and never any closer to finishing one whole consistent story.

This is one of the reasons I have not yet finished a novel, this one or any other. I am wondering if I should take this as a warning sign and reel my self in a little. Or could it work this time. Is it alright as certain things come clear in the story that you change other things that you thought where important to fit this new change.

I am going to end this here, please tell me if you have experienced this and what your experience was like. Would like to know if there are others like me out there ; )

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Well, first off, yes this happens rather a lot as a story and characters develop, and eventually the story takes its final shape. But, I think in your case it may have more to do with your development as much as it does your story. You say you've been working on this since you were 11 or 12 years-old? My first question to you would have to be, "How old are you, now?" As a writer who began in childhood myself I can tell you that my stories and characters changed dramatically as I got older and more experienced, as well they should have. I changed both as a person and as a writer.

 

[Anberith]

I am 25 now, and I get that my story is different than the one I got when I was young, personal experience and growth does play a big part. But the strange thing is that I have had about four or five big mutations in the past three years. Thankfully I can use a lot of the interesting parts I got from the "new" stories when I go back to the original one, but it is quite something to go so off rail, to have to come back to the original story you wanted to write. This is a story that I want to finish before I turn grey and old. I have even put a deadline on finishing the rough manuscript before may this year. I am pregnant with my first child and not working so I can focus on this full time.
As I was working the question hit me if this was normal as you get closer to the novel it is meant to be, or just something a crazy person does ............. ; )

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Well, we're all a bit mad in this place.

But seriously, the WIP my writing partner and I are preparing to submit this spring really doesn't look anything like its original concept. To be honest, I think the only character who survived the full *mumbles how long it took to develop* process completely intact is the primary antagonist. MC's have been replaced, the whole plot has been completely overhauled - more than once - and the world itself has been rearranged and built up to new and soaring heights.

And you know what? Its a much better story for it. To quote Roger Zelazny, "Trust your demon." It's good that you want to try to stick to the heart of your original story, and it's also good you recognize that some of the changes you've found have added depth to your world and characters. But don't be afraid to change, if that is the way the story is pulling you. Sometimes it's good to follow the rabbit - beyond the rabbit hole can be a world of wonder.

 

[Penpilot]

I'm in total agreement with A.E.

First, the story on the page will never be exactly like the story that you have in your head. As you get better as a writer, it will get closer.

Second, it's natural for the story to mutate a bit as you write. That's because you learn more about the characters and figure out more about the story you want to tell, so better ideas may trump what's already been written.

Third, if you spend too much time on a story or let it sit too long, you can lose it. That initial story you wanted to write disappears because the person who was going to write it disappears too. You as the author change. This can happen in within 6 months. I've heard professional authors say that sometimes if they wait too long to finish, they lose the story and they never finish.

Repeating what A.E. said, how long have you been working on this story? There's a concept of The Golden Idea. Every writer has their Golden Idea. It's an idea for a story that's awesome inside their heads, but each time they try to write it, it doesn't come out like they want, so they keep rewriting the story over and over. They get stuck in a loop and they don't progress as a writer and the story never gets completed.

For myself, I rewrote the first three chapters to my Golden Idea dozens of times over a 15 year period. I finally ploughed through and finished the novel and it was... crap. The central idea, the characters, and the setting are still awesome, but my execution was lacking. It was at that point I had a two choices, keep working on the story until it was to my liking or move on to another story. I did the latter and IMHO was the best decision. I took all the lessons I learned from failing and completed a second novel. The second novel had its issues, but they were simpler to fix, and I'm much more satisfied with it.

I can't say for sure, but from your description, if you're outlining and the story is still getting away from you, maybe you need a more in-depth outline.

 

[JRFLynn]

The exact thing happened to me, the story I had been developing since middle school progressively changed in both depth and style as I aged...and I'm rather thankful for it. My early concepts were just too fluffy and not very appetizing. Your current draft may need a lot of work, but if you're passionate about that particular story than go for it! Or, you can do what I did and start over from scratch :S

Who knows, the second time around may be just what you need to get that pesky plot in order!

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I don't think I've ever written a novel that has ended up as it started out. Usually it's just minor things, a character's motivation / back story, world build aspects, but sometimes I've turned the entire story on it's head.

Probably the best or worst example - depending on your view - is All The Stars a Grave, where I ended up with an entirely new plot and a new enemy by the final rewrite. The funny thing is I get reviews about how detailed and convoluted the plot is - which it is - and how just when the reader thinks it's going in one direction it turns on its head - which it does. But thanks to endless cups of coffee it all hangs together neatly. Thief on the other hand was two different books that in my madness became one - but again it worked.

I wouldn't worry about a book mutating. The only thing that matters is weaving the mutations into the story so it all melds into a seamless whole.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Anberith]

It is true that this Story is my "Golden Idea" and it has turned into some kind of an obsession with me. I have tried to put it away through the years and focus on my other books, but I keep coming back to this one. The first one, the one I somehow have to finish even if it turns out to be crap.

I am hoping that the changes that I have made and the mutation that is happening now is more on track than the others, where I got lost.

I have to admit that I am not writing the novel on purpose and focusing only on outlining now, I am trying to fix and create a stable plot and see plot holes beforehand, to focus on getting to know the MC's better and the characters that need to be created and it is a lot of work. I find this easier to work with as it's easier to let go of a index card than 10 pages of written text. Ether way this process is messy and maybe this obsession with this story will halt my writing carrier some but I am to obsessed with this story and how it will turn out that I can't let go.

At least as a conciliation the story is now bigger and more complex than it was before and there is some meat starting to be added. It has dawned on me that writing a epic fantasy story (as easy it is to fantasize about finishing) is quite the hard work. I know that I am making this little hard for my self but I also don't want to cut corners in the process, I want to know that no matter how it turns out I did put 100% effort into it and got real, valuable learning experience from it. Half-assing it will cheat me out of that and it has.

 

[Noma Galway]

My entire novel has been one big mutation. First it was a short story, then everyone wanted more background. When I added background, my magic system changed. As more stuff happened, I had a new major character (major in the sense that he affected pretty much everything my MC did in the entire book...even though he died within 7 chapters of existing). I realized, due to this new character, that my original antagonist needed to have POV chapters. When this happened, she was no longer the antagonist and the person who started out my MC's pretty much only friend ended up the antagonist. The original antagonist doesn't run the organization she is supposed to run anymore.

So, yes, it's mutated. A lot. All that was just over a span of two years. And it will probably keep changing. I'm pantsing this one, and I don't even know where it is supposed to go.

 

[AnneL]

My novels kept mutating into a story I didn't want to tell and fought to keep out. Finally I gave up and told the stupid story, and that was the novel that sold.

 

[Malik]

I went back over my manuscipt after not touching it for nearly ten years. At that point I'd been critically injured and nearly killed while serving overseas. Going through it changed the way that my main character deals with his own near-death experience and loss. I had written it with a very idealized concept of how a "hero" would deal with such a thing, and after months in a hospital surrounded by kids who'd lost arms and legs and faces and seeing how they dealt with it and put their lives back together, I realized that I'd had no freaking idea what I was talking about. My MC's motivation changed, so the entire book changed.

 

[Caged Maiden]

I sort of think if your story doesn't mutate, you're not growing as a writer...

I'd never consider trying to publish my first story as I wrote it. In fact, it's a blessing I only have a bunch of pages in a binder, because I'll probably have to just go read the whole thing chapter-by-chapter and rewrite the whole thing. Same for the rest of them. I've come too far to not change them.

 

[Malik]

I should add, too, that my series has been my "Big Story" for my whole writing life since I was a senior in high school, 25 years ago. I obsessed about it. I have boxes of notepads and sketches and hundreds of thousands of words that I haven't included in my current books, but all that writing and all those false starts helped me craft the world where my characters now live.

There is no bad writing; only unfinished writing. Creation is an ugly process.

 

[Ireth]

I think Winter's Queen is the story that's had the most mutation since I first had the idea. It started out as an idea centered around a woman who becomes a werewolf, then ends up on a pirate ship while searching for a cure, only to be rescued by a handsome masked warrior who's searching for his missing daughter. I latched onto the idea of the lost daughter, and soon the Fae got involved, and the werewolf character and the pirates dropped out completely. Now it's a story of a girl kidnapped by a Fae prince, whose father and uncle journey into Faerie to rescue her before the prince marries her and traps her in Faerie forever. Quite a bit of evolution there.

 

[Gurkhal]

It has attempted several times, but I have purged the mutants with fire and faith.

 

[Mindfire]

Dude, I am in the exact same boat. We're around the same age (I'm 21 since last November) and I started working on my WIP around the same time you did (12-13 years old). The story I'm working on now has literally nothing in common with the original version except for the fact that the main character has red eyes and fire-based powers. Nothing whatsoever. Everything else is completly different: plotlines, worldbuilding and geography, backstory, characters, character names (including the main character's), magic systems. You name it and it's either transformed into something near-unrecognizable or it's gone entirely. But I think the current version of the story (if you can even call it the same story after so many changes) is leagues beyond the original in terms of quality, complexity (the good kind), and maturity. Plus it's a lot more coherent. So I'll echo the sentiments of others in the thread and say don't worry about it. As you change, so will the story. Hopefully for the better. Embrace that. In time the wild mutations will settle down and the story will reach its ultimate form. Or at least, that's the case in my experience. And hey, years down the road you can always treat your fans by telling them how wacky the original version of the story was.

 

[Jabrosky]

Dude, this happens to me all the time. I even keep changing the main characters' names. In the past I would have attributed this to my tendency to get easily distracted or my low self-discipline, but after reading everyone's responses it appears that my process is perfectly normal for a writer.

 

[buyjupiter]

There is no bad writing; only unfinished writing. Creation is an ugly process.

This is perfect!

If I don't have a weird direction shift mid-writing as I come up with a better idea than my initial inspiration, then I'm doing it wrong. My initial ideas are usually pretty dull. I have a good character in mind, but the idea for their adventures? Pfft. I've usually read it before. Normally I've read it many, many times. (The perils of reading way too much?)

But along the way...I figure out how to make it different, more interesting, more authentic to the character I want to tell a story about. Which has led to many interesting side stories (that satisfy my need for new and shiny things to work on as well as problem solving character motivations and character arcs and sub-plots).

If I didn't let myself have that freedom to go and explore things as I need to, so long as I make a commitment to come back to the original piece when I'm done, I'd probably walk away from 75% of what I start.

 

[Ghost]

I'd be very surprised if many novelists' final works remained exactly as they envisioned from the beginning. It's common for the novel to shift in some way during the process.

This is one of the reasons I have not yet finished a novel, this one or any other. I am wondering if I should take this as a warning sign and reel my self in a little. Or could it work this time. Is it alright as certain things come clear in the story that you change other things that you thought where important to fit this new change.

I'd echo everyone else's sentiments, but I think you'll need to make choices and move forward sometime. You can't progress as a novel writer if you don't write novels. The world of ideas is attractive, but when they remain ideas, they're abstract and elusive ideals and rather than tangible, workable prose.

All your good ideas don't need to be in one novel. Presumably, you'll write a novel after this one, a novel after that one, and so on. Besides, choosing a path doesn't lock you in forever. You can always revise. After you've written the novel, you can more easily get a bird's-eye view of the whole and figure out where you meant to go. I think it helps to know what effect you want to have, what you want the reading experience to be like, that way you have a goal and you can more easily assess whether you've reached that goal. It helps narrow down possibilities without becoming too restrictive. It might also help to look at your characters and favorite scenes and figure out what would make those shine.

It's okay to doubt this plotline or that characterization—up to a point. I personally find it more detrimental to never start than to have a failed project. After all, you can learn from failed projects. I've gotten into the habit of putting novels off, and I'd honestly rather have tried years ago, failed, and moved on than to be still stuck before I've truly begun.

This is just my two cents. It may not be relevant to you.

ETA: It's okay to take your time, too. It can take years for you to discover what your tastes are and what resonates with you. There's no rush to this sort of process. If you're finding it stressful to constantly get ideas for new directions and you're not sure of yourself, you can figure out what's going on. If you're just checking to see if others relate and you enjoy this part of the journey, no worries.

 

[Chessie]

I'm in on this with everyone, for sure my stories mutate. My WIP shapeshifted a couple times before I wrote the first draft. Now at the rewrite, the plot is diffent and so are the roles the characters play. Their relationships are mostly the same. I love this version better than the original one and it feels like I'm getting close to the truest version I can tell of that story.

Go with it. Let the flow take you and explore those new ideas. You've matured as a person, so has your writing, naturally the story follows. If you're concerned about it though, sit down and write a few chapters of it to have something more definitive to work with. You'll know when you've hit home.