Besieging Omelas--and What I Learned From It
I've finished writing the longest thing I've ever written: a novel-length crossover of The Dresden Files and Hellblazer, in which two of the biggest trouble magnets in fantasy, Harry Dresden and John Constantine, are in the same universe and forced to work together. This was supposed to be for the last round of smallfandomfest, but it was finished far too late for that. I've posted a link to A3O, rather than posting each chapter on LJ; the story is complete there, and no one will have to endure repeated chapter-by-chapter postings each time I post the story to a community. Here's the link to -Besieging Omelas:
Until that May night, I never saw anyone flung from one reality--or universe, if you like that better--into another. And, naturally, it happened right in front of my car.
Though this isn't publishable, it wasn't a waste of time. I learned a lot from this. One thing I learned is that I definitely can complete a novel-length work...something that was a very real worry even after completing a number of novellas. A novella is one thing; a novel is something else. Now I know--I can. This was started in December, but most of December and January were shot thanks to unending financial and heat crises. The bulk of this was written in six weeks, after I acquired a functioning furnace.
Second, I continued writing and worldbuilding my help_haiti fic and two original novels while working on this. (I'm now focusing more on Help Haiti, which is late, and on the novel that has the most work completed. And a third novel has shown up that I may have to table till I get the other two done.) It didn't drain me of ideas--it seemed to spark more.
I learned that unfinished stories don't have to haunt you, and that they aren't proof that you'll never get anything done.. I felt guilty for years over a story I never finished for the Veil of Possibilities Archive (now, sadly, defunct). I wrote over 40,000 words of a story called "Erotomania," which, in fact, the closest I ever came to writing psychological horror. The fact that I wrote so much yet was unable to complete the story worried me no end; what if I couldn't sustain interest in a long work for the time it took to write it? Even the novellas didn't scotch that worry, because they were still shorter than "Erotomania."
But this is longer. I now know that I can sustain interest in a novel-length work for long enough to finish it. Whether I always will remain interested in a project, I don't know, but I know that the ability is there. That is quite amazingly reassuring.
I've learned that illness, pain and exhaustion may sideline me for a while--sometimes longer than I'd like--but that they don't stop me from writing for good. However, warmth and food definitely help the writing.
I've learned that sustaining complicated plots for the length of a novel isn't a problem. (Again, this was something that worried me for ages; could I plot a mystery or espionage novel and make it complex and believable? I always doubted that I could write mysteries, because I had visions of not being able to concoct a complex mystery without learning so much about it in advance that I grew bored before my fingers touched the keyboard. Now I think I can create the plot AND sustain the interest.)
I've learned that I don't actually have to write in set chapters; I can just write and figure out where the chapter breaks go later. (Again, always something that worried me, because most of my friends seem to write complete chapters--and for me, chapters--beginnings, ends and contents--are pretty fluid until the whole manuscript is complete.)
Overall, just learning that I CAN WRITE A NOVEL and that this isn't just a fantasy, but a proven ability has been a huge confidence builder.
It's not a work I can send off to a publisher, no.
But the next novels that I finish will be.
***
Until that May night, I never saw anyone flung from one reality--or universe, if you like that better--into another. And, naturally, it happened right in front of my car.
Though this isn't publishable, it wasn't a waste of time. I learned a lot from this. One thing I learned is that I definitely can complete a novel-length work...something that was a very real worry even after completing a number of novellas. A novella is one thing; a novel is something else. Now I know--I can. This was started in December, but most of December and January were shot thanks to unending financial and heat crises. The bulk of this was written in six weeks, after I acquired a functioning furnace.
Second, I continued writing and worldbuilding my help_haiti fic and two original novels while working on this. (I'm now focusing more on Help Haiti, which is late, and on the novel that has the most work completed. And a third novel has shown up that I may have to table till I get the other two done.) It didn't drain me of ideas--it seemed to spark more.
I learned that unfinished stories don't have to haunt you, and that they aren't proof that you'll never get anything done.. I felt guilty for years over a story I never finished for the Veil of Possibilities Archive (now, sadly, defunct). I wrote over 40,000 words of a story called "Erotomania," which, in fact, the closest I ever came to writing psychological horror. The fact that I wrote so much yet was unable to complete the story worried me no end; what if I couldn't sustain interest in a long work for the time it took to write it? Even the novellas didn't scotch that worry, because they were still shorter than "Erotomania."
But this is longer. I now know that I can sustain interest in a novel-length work for long enough to finish it. Whether I always will remain interested in a project, I don't know, but I know that the ability is there. That is quite amazingly reassuring.
I've learned that illness, pain and exhaustion may sideline me for a while--sometimes longer than I'd like--but that they don't stop me from writing for good. However, warmth and food definitely help the writing.
I've learned that sustaining complicated plots for the length of a novel isn't a problem. (Again, this was something that worried me for ages; could I plot a mystery or espionage novel and make it complex and believable? I always doubted that I could write mysteries, because I had visions of not being able to concoct a complex mystery without learning so much about it in advance that I grew bored before my fingers touched the keyboard. Now I think I can create the plot AND sustain the interest.)
I've learned that I don't actually have to write in set chapters; I can just write and figure out where the chapter breaks go later. (Again, always something that worried me, because most of my friends seem to write complete chapters--and for me, chapters--beginnings, ends and contents--are pretty fluid until the whole manuscript is complete.)
Overall, just learning that I CAN WRITE A NOVEL and that this isn't just a fantasy, but a proven ability has been a huge confidence builder.
It's not a work I can send off to a publisher, no.
But the next novels that I finish will be.
***