It's easy to lose a book. Something doesn't go quite right, the book is set aside, suddenly, two years have passed, and by now, you're a lot more interested in other books (like the one you're currently writing or the one that's coming up). Years pass. The characters turn into strangers. The book's gone.
I have a ton of books in the drawer. There's the financial trilogy which will likely never happen the way I imagined things in 2008/9. I think I have a novel and a novella there, and both need HUGE amounts of work. There's the menage and its prequel, there's the historical WWII novel (still around, still kicking, and still unfinished) and some other projects that are "cool ideas" at this stage and nothing more. I tend to be drawn towards the new over the old. Research books for the "new" are piling up all around me. You'd have to see it to believe it.
But above all, I'm putting work in to finish with the past and move into the future without guilt constantly dragging at my feet. I think I would be able to move faster that way. I might even tackle ROI again, the first book I did after "Special Forces". While "Collateral" saved me from burnout and from hating writing, ROI was what Germans call a "Befreiungsschlag" - a (violent) move to free oneself (usually from a superior enemy force). For that alone it deserves to be finished up properly. As it's not a romance in the conventional sense, I figure I might have to go down the self-publishing route, but that's OK. I'm done with conventional publishing, anyway.
Ah. ROI. I will always see the romance there that you refuse to see...or want, maybe?...a stubborn refusal in me to let Francis remain as he is and the diehard romantic in me that wants Martin to be his saviour.
ReplyDeleteIf only.
Whew, I don't feel so bad about my neglected work then. I look back at all those WIP on file, feel bad about them being unfinished and untouched ranging from months to years. I go back and try to work on them and the spark isn't there anymore. I think mainly because my earlier work was to practice my craft of writing and my storytelling was horrible, now I look at them and cringe(Promising to revise and never do). Good to know that saying vio con dios to old ideas and musings is okay and I don't have to feel bad.
ReplyDeleteHi, first of all I would like to say I love your work since this comment won't be the happiest and I didn't want the first time I would be contacting you to be this way. I noticed you usually post military ralated news that catch your eye on your blog and I just watched some disturbing news in the afternoon news in my country. It was about a portuguese navy recruit being spanked by 6 other recruits at base and a 4 minute video was leaked. It is absolutly revolting, I would actually say it was as bad as rape, and the media saw fit to show it 8 o'clock in the afternoon without much censoring...
ReplyDeleteApparently the victim only reported at the end of the recruit and despite the newspaper saying the offenders were punished, the news said something about it being 5 days without leaving base. Anyway, somehow I thought this would interest you, I'll leave the link (hope it works :)).
http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/detalhe/noticias/ultima-hora/espancamento-de-recruta-dos-fuzileiros-gravado-em-video
I'll say goodbye now, I'm kind of blushing like crazy (and still physically ill from the images...)
Janie
Elaine - ROI's not forgotten. I think I'll look at that once IC is done. The biggest issue is that I can't see a market or publisher for it.
ReplyDeleteChacelyn - don't feel bad. You can always use the good ideas as "quarry" and take whatever has substance to build new stories with. I think most writers have to get through a lot of "dead matter" in terms of writing before they strike gold, too, so just move on into the future.
Janie - that video is horrifying. I'm amazed that it was shown at that time and so widely. I can't possibly imagine the repercussions, but I do hope that the torturers were properly punished. Thanks for sharing, I wasn't aware of that news item.