TLIF - Letting an Idea Rest

Variable One
About three years ago, I finished a novel. It was grand and spectacular and I wanted everyone to read it and love it.

A few people did read it and love it. I knew it still needed work, but it was an awesome story. So...I cheated and queried it. That was the first time I ever queried anything. Fortunately, my attention span was vary narrow at the time (also, I didn't realize I could query a bunch of agents at once, so I only sent out one letter at a time) and I only sent off about 6 query letters. All form rejections, as you might have guessed.

And then life got in the way. Literally. I had a job that was doing terrible things to me psychologically, and even if the 16-hour days, 6 days a week hadn't driven me into a deep depression, the lack of sleep would have made it difficult to write.

So I shelved that book, along with most everything else creative. I finally got back to it just a little over a year ago, and by that time I had re-written it a million times in my head. So when I got back into writing it, I ended up deleting more than half the story and replacing it with new stuff.

I look at the original and while it certainly wasn't a grand masterpiece, it actually wasn't bad. It was a completely different story than what I have now, aside from the core 'romantic' relationship that happens.


Variable Two
About three weeks ago, I finished a novel. It was grand and spectacular and I wanted everyone to read it and love it.

One person has finished it, and a second is in the process. I know it needs work, but it's an awesome story. The thing is, the moment I finished it, I had no idea what would need fixing. Aside from a few notes in the manuscript that say things like "should I expand this scene?" I wouldn't have been able to tell you what needed work.

Which is why I can't dive back into editing as soon as a project is finished. I can admit that. I have to let it sit for at least a week, because after day one I still love it, and by day three I never want to see it again, but with any luck after a week, I've forgotten enough to look at it with fresh eyes.

So now, three weeks later, it seems like it should be the perfect time to edit this new story. I have some notes, I'm still hoping for some more, but I have enough to get started at least.

Variable Three
These two novels take place in the same universe. Once upon a time they were meant to be part of a series. But as I wrote them, I realized the two stories were happening at the same time, not one after another. The events in the two stories overlap.

Since I had already given up on the first one, I decided that was okay. The second one would take its place. Until someone asked if I had considered combining the two.

And for many, many reasons, it made perfect sense. It was like the missing link of the puzzle. The only problem is, that first novel has been resting again. For several months. And I go back and look at it and think "I could change this, and that, and this, and that"...which would require changing both story lines.

And I love this second story. I was very happy with how it turned out and I've only been staring at it since November instead of for three years, so I'm not tired of it yet.

So now I'm asking myself a few things:

• Can I revise without wanting (again) to obliterate half of the original story?
• Will leaving so much of the original story intact hurt me in the end?
• Am I stubborn enough to let this entire project suck me back into this abandoned novel for another month or two, or
• Will I surrender and leave the entire thing by the roadside in favor of my new idea?

The Conclusion
So, all of that leads to a single conclusion. I firmly believe that it's a good idea to let a story rest after you finish it, regardless of how long the story is.

However, leaving it for too long takes away some of the original wonder. The awe, the inspiration, the thoughts and reason that drove me to write the story in that way.

The question is, where is that balance? How does one know when it's been long enough but not too long?

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And Now a Brief Intermission

I'm engrossed in paying work today, and my brain is only thinking in SQL, so I don't have a witty rambling to share. Instead, I'll leave you with a video ala classic 1980's cheese. Don't ask me what's up with the air guitar, but this song has always been one of those that stuck with me. The intro, the words...all of it.

The song is Edge of Thorns, by Savatage. Bonus points (if we were giving out points), if you're familiar with their more recent/popular work under a different name.

Enjoy, and Happy Leap Year Day!

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Why I Un-Followed You on Twitter

Do you know why gyms prefer annual contracts and auto rewnewal options on credit cards?

Sorry, I know, never open with a rhetorical question.

It's because auto-renewal is a business model. It's based on people being too busy/lazy/apathetic/whatever, to cancel that automatic monthly charge.

Let's say for instance you made a New Year's resolution to go to the gym every day. You went and signed up for a gym membership and gave them your credit card and said "of course charge me every month."

And in January you use the gym like nobody's business. You're there twice a day sometimes. And then February hits and you don't have time one day. And then you miss an entire week, and by June you haven't been back in two months.

But you let them continue to charge your credit card every month. Occasionally you'll look at your credit card bill and say "I never go to the gym any more, I should cancel that." But so many people will never get around to it. All of those un-cancelled, unused gym memberships are what keeps them in business.

Same for any recurring monthly fee. Games, video rentals, online services, all of it. A part of their business model is based on how many people will sign up, pay the monthly fee, and never use the product. Because they get paid regardless.

Ever see those writers on Blogger/Word Press/Twitter/Facebook/Google +, etc, who have tens of thousands of followers?

Some of them have really good content online.

Some of them, this is what their social media feeds look like:

"I wrote a blog post about how awesome I am"

Ten minutes later "I wrote a book and it's awesome"

Ten minutes later "I wrote a blog post about how awesome I am"

Rinse. Repeat. And Repeat. And Repeat.

You may have followed this writer because they followed you or because one day someone retweeted one of their links and you said "that looks interesting." You read the blog post. It wasn't bad.

Except then you notice the next day that they've got the same links on their social media feed. And the next day, etc. Those links continue to draw in new followers, because the article is good. But the person never seems to say anything else.

Eventually, you learn to ignore anything they post. That's the awesome thing about image avatars, our eyes recognize them and we just scan past that information. Maybe sometimes you say "should I unfollow them?" and you decide maybe you'll do it later, or that maybe that would be rude, or whatever your excuses are.

You continue to let them clutter your feed, because it's easier to just not do anything.

But would you buy their next book? Or have you taught yourself to ignore their feed to the point where you don't even register if there's new information in it? (assuming there ever is new information).

If that writer automatically made even $1 a month for every single follower, that would be a fantastic business model. Similar to the gym membership business model.

But last time I checked, unless your job is gathering online followers, we don't get paid a fixed rate for each follower. And if all of your followers are ignoring you because of repetitive static, you don't get paid at all.

I think posting a blog link multiple times is acceptable. I think posting links to your book multiple times is acceptable. But...

If it's the same blog link five times a day every day for four months, and the same book link five times a day every day, and there's nothing else coming from your feed...

Does it really matter how many followers you have if they all see you as is an unused gym membership?

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When Head-Hopping is Legal

Before you compose your response to my post-title, hear me out.

One of the stories I'm currently working on takes place from the perspective of two different characters. Essentially half the scenes from one POV and half from the other.

The thing about these two different perspectives is I wrote one person's half of the story first. Long before I realized I wanted to add a second perspective. So when I went to add in the second perspective, I had to make things like time lines match up, so when they interact with each other or events occur in one that impact the other, it all makes sense.

This has had an interesting side-effect. I can see scenes now in the original that don't make sense when viewed from another perspective.

It goes a step further, because I got some feedback on my first chapter the other day. And it told me exactly what I suspected, but didn't want to hear. The scene doesn't work. It's got so many flaws I won't list them here. But the scene exists because it one of the scenes where both characters appear, and it gets continued later in the story from the other character's perspective.

So my CP said (I'm paraphrasing) "This doesn't work, it doesn't show your MC clearly..."

And in my head I said "Well, I know, but this is where he first encounters the other character. It's where his story starts. I can't change that."

Except I can. Being able to see it through this second character's eyes has made me realize that neither version of the scene is appropriate. It doesn't fit with the rest of the story. This gives me a chance to go back and fix something I've never liked about the book, because I was able to see it through new eyes.

So I've decided, even though head-hopping in story narrative is frowned upon, being able to do it in your head serves a fantastic purpose. It shows so much more going on than the story does, and allows us as writers to flesh a scene out. To tell our POV characters where to look, essentially.

Do you ever imagine a scene from a different perspective to help you get a fuller feeling for it?

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