Been a busy week so here it is 7 a.m. and I'm just now doing this post - ack! TGIF indeed!
So, I spent the last 6+ months writing and rewriting a YA story that I have now decided needs to be totally reworked as a mid-grade novel. It is pretty depressing if I let myself dwell on it for too long. I just don't have the energy to do the rewrite now, and who knows if I ever will. I think, sometimes, the longer you spend on a story, working and reworking, the more you start to doubt the story. At least I do. I've decided the best thing for now is to put it away, and maybe next spring, revisit it and see how I feel about it.
Last winter, I ran a story idea past the Author2Author gals and they all said they thought it sounded good. Maybe they just said that because they are very nice gals, but since then, that story has been simmering in the back of my brain and last weekend, when I realized I needed something new to work on, to bring me out of my depression, I sat down and wrote a synopsis, and then started in on the manuscript.
The thing I like about this story, more than anything, is that it ultimately is about a choice the main character must make. And it's not an easy one. It's another novel in verse, and it's something new, I think, that we haven't seen in the verse format before.
Anyway - I LOVE stories where the main character is forced to choose between two things and the choice is hard. Have you seen the preview for that new Carmen Diaz film The Box? Push the button for a million dollars, but when you do, someone somewhere in the world dies. I'm SO going to see that movie!
As for me, I had to choose between letting a story go that I spent a LOT of time on and moving on. Who knows if I made the right choice, but, like most things in this business, you have to follow your instincts and cross your fingers it all works out in the end.
Have a great weekend! I'll be writing. Again!
~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career
3 comments:
Lisa, writing my mafia-Vietnam-War book has been like that -- this idea that I have wanted to write for so long and I still can't quite get it. Then after I read WHAT I SAW AND HOW I LIED, I was like, "Man! My book needs to be like THAT!" and now I'm not sure I'll ever be able to do it. But I will. We will. We will rework what we have when the time is right and total inspiration strikes.
Until then, if the verse novel you are working on is the one I think it is, woo hoo!! And I will go on rewriting my first novel ever written, hoping that 5 years is all it took to come together for me. :)
Lisa, I applaud you for having the courage to follow your writer's instincts, even though it will lead you on the harder path. Here's me standing up and clapping. ((applause))
I'm so looking forward to this one. I feel like I've been with Lisa from the beginning. :)
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