Hold Your Wild Horses
As I'm wrestling with one story that's been keeping me from pulling together the Daughters of the Whirlwind collection for years, I pulled out some old notes from a folder in a drawer that's difficult to get to (must clean this office and get access to all my files). As I'm going through them, I start to think dang, the pieces aren't going to fit together. The new idea simply doesn't square with what I was intending to do.
And then I realize that no, they don't -- because they're not the same story. They're two different stories, in different parts of the characters' lives, during different parts of the history of the 'verse. The one for DotW is relatively early, when the old regime was firmly in place, and the second is after the disastrous war that resulted in the fall of the monarchy and its replacement with a republic that was at best poorly-thought-out, and at worst an open invitation to tyranny (at least the old regime had traditions to restrain the worst abuses).
And as I realize that, this whole huge vista of story starts opening up for me -- but I can't write all of it Right Now. I need to concentrate on writing and finishing the first story so I can get DotW finished, and the rest of this character's story is going to have to wait while I finish putting together the rest of the deliverables for my Kickstarter. Yes, some of it is in that 'verse and may have this character appear, even if only as a "far tree," seen at a distance, but I can't let this one thing run away with everything else.
So difficult, after struggling so hard to get a story to gel, to get a massive data dump straight to my right brain and have to put it on hold because I have deadlines and deliverables that I've promised people.
And then I realize that no, they don't -- because they're not the same story. They're two different stories, in different parts of the characters' lives, during different parts of the history of the 'verse. The one for DotW is relatively early, when the old regime was firmly in place, and the second is after the disastrous war that resulted in the fall of the monarchy and its replacement with a republic that was at best poorly-thought-out, and at worst an open invitation to tyranny (at least the old regime had traditions to restrain the worst abuses).
And as I realize that, this whole huge vista of story starts opening up for me -- but I can't write all of it Right Now. I need to concentrate on writing and finishing the first story so I can get DotW finished, and the rest of this character's story is going to have to wait while I finish putting together the rest of the deliverables for my Kickstarter. Yes, some of it is in that 'verse and may have this character appear, even if only as a "far tree," seen at a distance, but I can't let this one thing run away with everything else.
So difficult, after struggling so hard to get a story to gel, to get a massive data dump straight to my right brain and have to put it on hold because I have deadlines and deliverables that I've promised people.