posted
And no, this isn't about the wacky weather on the east coast. Promise!!
Starting with last year's Nanowrimo, I wrote about 90 thousand words on a story called "Wayward" before declaring it unusable in its current form. I didn't have enough of a villian, and the heroes were almost stuck in neutral. But I loved the concept and idea, so I put it on the back burner until I could figure out the bad guy concept.
Over the next three months, I pounded out a revision on another novel. After that, I started a new book, "My Brother's Keeper". I got about 15 thousand words in before realizing how much research this story would take (set in World War 2), and figured I could bang out an edit of another novel more quickly.
So I start a rewrite of that other novel, "Wilde Card". Fifteen thousand words in, and now I've rediscovered my Nano story. I absolutely love the characters in that story. Not that I don't like my heroine in "Wilde Card", but "Wayward"'s characters are just more fun to write.
I'm so dang conflicted now. Needed to vent. Don't mind me.
Anyone else seem to be stuck in neutral with a thousand options to work on, but having no idea which way to go?
[This message has been edited by Rhaythe (edited May 19, 2011).]
posted
Ah, been there, done that. My last attempt at a novel aborted at one hundred thousand words, chiefly 'cause I wrote it with no idea where I was going, no idea who the villains were (or if they were villains), and I had no idea where to go from where I left off. I hated leaving the characters where I left 'em, though...
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quote:Sorry to nit pick, but isn't there a movie or book already titled "My Brother's Keeper"?
Oh, probably, but, then, any good quote you care to name there's likely someone already squatting on the title-rights to it...
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No, but as I understand it they can be trademarked in some instances...
Pretty much ever since I've been writing, I've had more unfinished projects than a sane mind could contemplate. Focus can be difficult. Sometimes you just have to knuckle down and say "I won;t write a word on project X until I have written 10k on project Y".
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Actually, there is a movie but I think there's probably a plethora of novels and stories with that title. Some are fiction, of various genres, and some are non-fiction.
But what ever title you use, sounds like you're doing good and even enjoying the process.
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A friend of mine, who writes cartoons professionally and has done so since the eighties, was taken to court by a big film company over his trademark, which was the cartoon's title. Apparently they wanted the title for a film and had trademarked it in the 70s. In a very David and Goliath story, my friend won, on the basis that his use of the title had created market recognition, and you can't store up titles as a trademark without actively trying to trade by it. Are there any lawyers here that have a better idea of how this works?
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No idea of how it works, Brendan, but I hope his success set a precedent that curtails that sort of behavior by big businesses. These days intellectual property laws are twisted to hurt people creating new things as often as protect them.
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"Am I my brother's keeper?" Isn't that Cain?
Can someone trademark a line from something as popular and, what I would consider anyway, pretty much public domain as the Bible, even if it's paraphrased?
quote:"Am I my brother's keeper?" Isn't that Cain?
Yup. =)
A quick search of IMDB shows a bunch of movies with that same title, some as recent as the early 2000's. Doesn't really bother me, though. As I mentioned, it's just a working title. And it's not like I'm ripping off storylines or characters anyway.
On that note, I'll need to check my bible. You'd think after how many hundreds of years that the material would be open domain. Though I suppose specific translations can be copyrighted.
After talking with the wife, I think I'm going to go with the "Wayward" story anyway. It's closer to complete, and I have a chance of getting it publishable before the Jacksonville Writers conference in August.
Thanks all. Though please, keep the convo going.
quote:But what ever title you use, sounds like you're doing good and even enjoying the process.
Can be frustrating when there's no time. Especially since my wife works only 20 hours a week. I end up envying her schedule and trying to imagine how much I could get written if I worked her hours.
That said, writing rocks. So I just need to crack my own whip.
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You could always change the title around a little. Am I My Brother's Keeper, His Brother's Keeper, My Sibling's Keeper, The Keeper of My Brother, The Brother's Keeper, Brother's Keeper. Or just stick with what you have. I can never come up with a title until after the story is written and sometimes not even then.
I've definitely had that problem before. I've just finished a novel I've been working on for a long time. I have several story ideas(some more fleshed out than others) and I don't know which one to do.
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YES! Totally, though in my case it's all imagined work anyway, since I don't have time (energy? gumption?) at the moment to get it down. But plans...I have tons and tons of plans. I have a novel I'm going to epublish myself, just need to format it, possibly beg one last read through from my editor friend, haven't decided, and then get the cover done (different friend does covers.) Have another that's a solid book, I'm very happy with it, need to edit it, though, as I've marked up my paper copy with ideas, fixes, a few changes/extensions.
Each of those two novels I have the vaguest outlines of a sequel for...
I've got a fanflippingtastic short story I started a while ago called Magic Piano but I can't get back to for some reason or another (could have something to do with not opening the file...) I've got last year's nano project that was terrible, but maybe it's not? I think it felt terrible to me because i wasn't sure where I was going, but I'm 99% sure the writing is spot-on, it's just I need to carry forward the plot to the logical conclusion (I stopped at 53k words, probably need another 10-20k to finish the story.) There's a fourth novel that's been written in there somewhere but that probably needs even more of an edit/overhaul (I usually am pretty light-handed with edits.)
And then all the blog posts that I have drafted in my head, you know, for later when I have time. <headdesk>
But to be fair to myself, I'm just through a major work deadline, and the minor one will be through in the next 1-2 weeks. I have another novel in outline/rough idea form that I'm thinking about serializing on my blog and writing 1000 words/day on (5 days/week x 12 weeks of summer = 60k novel...) --- haven't fully committed to that yet, though. Probably need to make that decision soon!
Good luck in deciding where you want to focus your attention. Sometimes i think it's just a matter of discipline, choose something to focus on, reminding ourselves that we can come back to the other projects afterwards...
quote: I've definitely had that problem before. I've just finished a novel I've been working on for a long time. I have several story ideas(some more fleshed out than others) and I don't know which one to do.
I decided I could respond to this, the previous comment that started this and KayTI, also.
Currently I have maybe half the time to write as I used to. When I wrote my first novel I had time to work on it, work on short stories and even do a little playing around each day. But now I barely have time to work on one project at a time, two if I discipline myself. So since I'm working on two novels--actually three but I'm working on that one during lunch and afternoon break at work--my short stories have been sitting and my ideas are still just that. I do work on one short story during the morning break at work but that's barely enough time.
I have two unfinished stories waiting on in my WIP file, two other stories that I need to revise, one I need to remake. That last one was changed stuff added to please some people who critted it--not here--and I decided to redo the original story. I will take out what I added and make that a separate story. One of those story ideas is one I got from my wife's crafts and will probably be very short maybe flash whenever I get to it.
Recently some of my writing time has been cut back even more, have to do some badly needed yard work, and circumstances have changed to cut two to three hours of my Saturday writing time.
[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited May 21, 2011).]
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Was definitely the right idea, I think, to jump back to this story. The characters have come flooding back to me. It's been far easier than I thought it was to work my new antagonist in. Scary how well it's going, actually... which means everything will come crashing down soon, right?
Still, glad my wife smacked some sense into me on this one. If it helps anyone, always go with the story with the characters you feel closer to.
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