On Writing

Yesterday I had to make a very hard decision and basically scrap all the work I've been doing on my current writing project, The Chronicles of Hendricks. The reason for this is that I realized the set up I had just wasn't working as well as it should, that I was taking far too long to get to the important things like monsters and mad scientists, and that an alternate set-up that I had been mulling over for a while would simply fit the story better.

So, two or three months worth of work go down the drain, and I start over for the...fourth time? I'm not sure at this point.

But no complaints; it was the right thing to do. I'm planning on leaving Hendricks to ferment for a while: I need to work out how the new set-up will work and what other scenes/elements/characters I might need to drop to make it flow. Meanwhile, I'll be taking another crack at Lepus, which also went through a major story-change which, I think, makes the whole thing much more interesting (and gives me more room to spread out and add more story elements).

One thing I'm learning is that no writing is wasted; yes, all the work I did on Hendricks is getting scrapped, but I learned a lot from it. The characters - particularly the heroine - are a lot more developed now and have started taking on their own little quirks and personalities. I have a better sense of where the story is going and how it will unfold than I did, and I also have a better sense of what doesn't work and things I need to avoid going forward.

I'm having a lot of fun so far planning out the next draft of Lepus; hopefully I'll be able to crank it out faster than the previous draft. Stay tuned for more updates!