For a girl who's never had a boyfriend (not that I'm complaining), I've sure had my share of breakups. Of course, they're all with fictional characters.
But this is the worst I've gone through.
Friday night I officially decided to permanently shelve Oracles Promise. Every scrap to do with the novel now sits in a banker's box in our storage room. It's got a pretty label. Something like "Sunstone Saga box #1." And it will sit there for a long time, calling to me.
When I told my mom, in very supportive fashion she asked "Are you okay?" It was very nice. Because I'm not entirely okay. But the decision had to be made. I'd rather make it before embarking on a lot of wasted hours in revisions than go through ten rounds of edits and realize it still needed to be shelved.
My reasons? The book is beyond salvaging. And my heart is not in the book as it needed to be. (In both senses. I didn't like the direction the book needed to go to be publishable and thus my heart just was not in the edits.)
So I'm going to move on to Lodestar and my bright shiny new idea. I'll be working on re-plotting the former and researching for the latter. Hopefully in April I'll be ready to begin anew on Lodestar. So, those writerly goals for the year? I'm throwing out the one that said to have a project ready to query come September. Because that won't happen if I'm just starting on draft 1 redux of Lodestar.
But the good news is that I've learned some valuable lessons which I will be sharing in the coming weeks. (How's that for cryptic?)
How are you WiPs going?
Aw, so sorry to hear Oracles sleeps with the fishes. I hope after a break you'll revisit your baby and it will flow like ganagbusters. (what's with the mob references? lol)
ReplyDeleteGood luck with Lodestar! Don't rule out a query by Sept. You never knwo how things will flow!! :) ((hugs!))
Hugs! It's hard to set aside something you have worked so hard on.
ReplyDeleteChin up! I've shelved four so far. I still think of them fondly and hope to get back to them some day--though they each need a LOT of work, LOL!
ReplyDeleteDon't despair! As you've already alluded, each WIP offers so much learning that even if they end up in a nice box with a pretty title, going through the experience was worth it.
Congrats on having a shiny, new idea to work on! :)
Thanks, Katie.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laura. 4? Wow. I don't know if I would have the heart to go on if I had to shelve so many. I'm really hoping that my next WiP shapes up better.
That's a tough decision. I've started over from scratch after churning out 100 pages (of a 125 page novella. It ain't easy.) It's good that you know what is best for you. Good luck on the new projects. Mine is going well, picking up steam for the ending.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a hard decision. But hey, look at the bright side. Now you can use the best bits of Oracles in another novel. :)
ReplyDeleteAngie, ouch that's rough. Glad to hear your project is going well.
ReplyDeleteElana, thanks. Unfortunately, I can't do that. If I'm going to use characters from there it has to be the story I wrote. And I just don't have the heart to try to change it.