Sometimes, You Just Gotta Let It Go...For Now

Been having difficulty with the current project. It's the same thing that always happens. When you've lived with characters as long I have with these, they literally begin to throw out ideas all their own. Ideas that really don't fit into the grand scheme of the novel you're writing.

I have so many versions of their story at this point that even I'm getting confused as to what should and should not be included. Then there's the scenes that I would like to get in there but can't find. It's become a lesson in frustration and mental confusion. So, my writing group had a suggestion - let it go, for now, and work on something else that is complete and just needs some editing.

I can do that.

Trouble is, I really do want these characters to see daylight. I do. It's just hard for me to decide which bits of their lives I want to share. These two live such fascinating lives and yes, their story is going to be an entire series because it is so huge and involves so many other characters who have their stories to tell. I think I've overwhelmed even myself with all of it. I really don't know how Ms. Rowling did it and still has hair on her head. Or how she stays away now that Harry's story has come to a conclusion. It has been said that if a story moves the writer, it will move the reader. As a reader, I know I want more. I can only imagine how hard it was for her to move on.

But I can imagine how I'm going to move on.

If I'm honest - and I was when they said it - hearing that I could drop the current project and move on to something else was a tremendous relief. It pains me to say this but if my beloved first characters don't make it into the world, I think I'll be ok with that. And maybe I just answered the question of why this has been so hard.

They say you never forget your first love and that's true but I can also say that you never forget your first characters. He will always be the hero that any other hero I come up with will be measured against. She is the template for any future heroine. Not that the other heroes and heroines I've dreamed up (some of them literally) are duplicates. They are all very different and I find that I do love them all. I guess this is what it's like to have more than one kid.

So, while I'm not abandoning my first loves, I am going to shelve them for the moment. I've already compiled the next project so that I can read it on my Kindle and find the big hole that I remember leaving when NANOWRIMO came around. Speaking of that, I will also need to break out that project and do the revisions on it. Well, I should probably finish writing it first. I did write the majority of the story before doing the rest in synopsis form.

There's a a few other completed but not edited projects that can easily follow. Then, once the smaller projects are done and earning their keep (thinking positively here), I can go back to my first loves and work with them some more.

That's the plan, anyway. I just hope I can stick to it. Sometimes all the voices in my head can lead me into places that are better left alone - or at least, kept on the back burner while something gets done and out to the masses - finally.