R.I.P., W.I.P.

by Lindsey Loucks, posted in Story Ideas
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I recently resurrected the first novel I ever wrote. It had been collecting dust on my flash drive. The characters were quiet inside my head compared to the obnoxious ones who want me to tell their stories next. So I picked the story up to get everyone else to hush. It worked, at least for awhile.

Now, the voices inside my head are shouting plot twists at me that have nothing to do with my first novel and everything to do with the ones they want me to write. And I’m starting to listen to them.

Maybe that first novel wasn’t meant to be resurrected. Maybe it will always be my first completed novel with crater-sized plot holes, inconsistent characters, and a lack of structural sense. And maybe it’s okay to just let it exist in all its imperfect glory on my flash drive. Some writers trunk their first novel forever, right?

There are some hidden gems in it, I think. But maybe those gems are kriptonite and my Super Girl writer skills can’t touch them yet. Maybe they’ll stay hidden until the day I turn into Super Woman. Then those gems better watch out!

So, at least for now, I’m saying goodbye to Pause so that I can properly listen to the chaos inside my head. Rest in peace, WIP. To my critique partners, I apologize. 🙁

Does this happen to everyone else? Have you trunked your first novel? Do you ever have so many voices inside your head that you want to reach in there and duct tape everyone’s mouth shut?

12 thoughts on “R.I.P., W.I.P.”

  1. Oh it happens to me.I need to be editing one, but the characters are talking to me-from another world in another book. And I have been bad about sticking with the task at hand. I go and talk back to the characters via keyboard, of course. Nice blogpost. I was jumping to blogs registered for the A to Z April blog, and then jumped from one of them to here. 🙂 Good luck with your writing!

  2. My first attempt at a novel is gathering cyberdust too. It might get resurrected one day, when inspiration strikes for how to turn it into something readable, or maybe not.

    I think this is normal 😉

  3. Yep. Remember my sci-fi story I started, got three chapters into, and realized it was a slow moving train wreck?

    I suspect that part of knowing how and what to write includes knowing what not to write.

    –j–

  5. Yep. A historical romance. About 2/3 done with first draft. Abandoned until I have time for the proper research. I have hopes that it will not be abandoned forever.

    But hey just move with the bug, girl. 🙂

  6. I’m still working on my first novel, and I will pull it off someday. Just not in the near future since I don’t actually have the time.

    Always write what you want – what thrills you. If you force something, it wills show. So there’s no point 😉

    Good luck!

  7. Oh yes, I trunked my first one last year. I might come back to it, but only when I’m a better writer, because the structure I was trying to pull off was too complicated for a newbie… I’ve also heard some say they mine their first one for short stories to publish…

  9. First novels will always stay with us I think… sometimes I go back and look at it, but I also see how much needs fixing in it… though it’ll always have a special spot in my heart

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