New Projects

There is nothing quite like ‘new.’ Writing on that first page of a new notebook is fun. Writing on the second page is ‘eh.’ The same thing can be said for my writing. I love coming up with ideas and even doing some plotting, but I find that after a few days I grow tired of the story. It becomes hard to even reach 300 words on a given writing session compared to the first day of writing that is in the thousands.

Keeping momentum and determination is hard. Why is new so great but the familiar is not? We value old friends and keepsakes. How can we take that kind of value for something ‘old’ and apply it to projects that are no longer ‘new?’

In my heart, I feel like I am a fantasy writer. Or at least I really really want to be one. As I write my fantasy stories they just seem to fall flat. I have to admit that I haven’t read that much in the way of fantasy. I’m not sure why I want to write fantasy other than my husband loves it. Maybe because of my lack of passion for a subject that I just take on his?

I do have a few more story ideas that are not fantasy. One area of writing I would like to explore is humor writing.  I feel bad, though, for constantly coming up with new projects and never finishing any of them. I guess my hope is that one of these new projects will be that magical one that I take to the end.

The new project I feel is a good contender as I have already briefly outlined it from beginning to end – something I have never done before. So I hope as I write it that I can keep it going in the right direction.

My first idea for a fantasy novel was a tongue-in-cheek tale of a torchbearer – the guy in the adventuring party whose job is it to hold the torch while all the other adventurers do cool stuff. While sitting down to map out the story, I changed it. In fact, my idea changed so much that it didn’t even resemble this idea. I wasn’t happy with it at all. My original idea was a guy who was looking to prove himself. What my story turned into was a guy who had it all together and was the one helping others instead of needing the help. It was boring. No wonder I lost interest in telling that story.

I’m really considering starting back with my original idea. I have learned a lot about fiction writing and have a lot to learn, but I will never know if I truly enjoy it unless I do it. I just need to find a way to stay connected with a project until I have completed it.