Beyond the Book: Yes and No

“Have you ever had a writing project go smoothly from start to finish? What factors do you believe helped to make that happen?”

My first writing project met this week’s criteria. I sat down to write and stared at the computer for ten minutes, not sure how to begin, but I knew where I wanted to go so I just started writing. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed writing a book more. Great, huh? Oh, yes it was until I had to go back and rewrite more scenes than I care to admit. I worked on that thing for what seems like forever, but I did love every minute of it. I’d had this story in mind for a very long time. My plot was laid out, I loved my characters, and, I couldn’t believe I waited so long to try my hand at writing. 

Did most of my work go so smoothly? Well, yes and no. Yes because I didn’t know I should make notes about the personal characteristics of my characters or have copious plot notes or all of the other things some authors do. It was just all in my head, and I wrote it down. Honestly, I don’t think I’d ever have loved writing so much if I had spent so much time on the story before I ever started writing. If I came to a scene where I needed some guidance I used the Internet for my research. It worked well. I wrote a book about the manager of a motel, and after the book was published one reader said she bet I worked in a motel at one time because I got so much right. 

Yet, sometimes I did encounter times when the work didn’t go smoothly. In those times I think that the biggest reason I had trouble was because I wasn’t totally invested in the story. I thought I wanted to tell the story, but deep down I think maybe I didn’t. I decided to write a story about a girl who inheirited a trailer park from her long lost uncle. When I created her I named her Izzy and gave her a cute, flirty personality. She of course met two hunky guys who competed for her attention. I inver intended to make one bad and the other good. I intended for her to have to choose between two good things.About twenty thousand words into the story I quit writing. Then I tried to write individual scenes and figure out a way to tie them together. One scene was especially tense. Izzy and one of her admirers were caught in a forest fire, but I didn’t want to write the fire scene. I quit. The beginning is still on my computer. I thought about it the other day, but I still don’t want to write it. I’m sorry about it because I think it would have been a fun book (not the forest fire, though), but I’m done with it.

I have another book that I quit on. I guess it’s on my computer somewhere, but I have no idea where. I hadn’t titled it yet and don’t remember how I saved it. I don’t care. That’s a pity too. I had some major good conflict going.

Authors, have you ever started something that you didn’t want to finish? If so, what did you do about it?