Weighing Writing Choices
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I’ve always been very jealous of writers who have spectacular, manuscript-worthy dreams. Those writers who wake up with ideas for their works in progress or for new stories, falling out of their beds to find a pen and paper.
Although I often get story ideas in those drowsy moments right before I fall asleep, my dreams have always been a source of consternation for me. They’re pedestrian visions of forgotten locker codes from decades ago, anxious and imaginary wanderings through unfamiliar cities with no map to guide me. They’re even work-related dreams of me writing…without, mind you, the actual writing which would make such dreams worthwhile. My dreams are basically me worrying over minutiae.
Which is why my dream last week was so completely extraordinary.
I woke up, gasping, sitting straight up in bed, scaring my husband half to death. I could still see the freight train from the dream, so real I could practically feel the breeze as it went by.
And I had a whole skeleton of a book…from the dream.
Naturally, after years of complaining about my boring dreams, I wasn’t about to squander this opportunity. I gave up on sleeping (yes, it was…oh, maybe two-thirty in the morning) and created a rough outline for the story along with character sheets.
Then I looked at the outline. Well, what the heck was I supposed to do with that? It wasn’t that it was a bad story. But it presented me with a bunch of problems.
Problem #1: It was a story that wanted to be lit fic. Even though the characters were teens. It didn’t want to be YA.
Problem #2: It was a story that wanted to be a standalone.
Problem #3: Neither of those things (lit fic, standalones) sells particularly well.
Problem #4: My brand as an author isn’t associated with lit fic at all. This means I’d likely want to write this book under another name. Which involves a web presence of some kind for that other name. Which involves time.
Problem #5: I’m writing a series that’s doing well. I have dedicated readers for it. It makes no sense to spend three months writing a project that won’t sell in a genre I don’t write for readers that don’t exist.
Of course, the argument against giving in to the problems with the story is that I would likely enjoy writing the story. I’d find it creatively stimulating. It would be a challenge.
But…it’s also a challenge for me to write my own, fairly successful series. In fact, the challenge grows with every book, with every new reader. The challenge is to create new and exciting material within the story world and with the recurring story characters. The challenge is creating character growth to prevent popular characters from getting too static…without changing the characters so much that readers are unhappy with the changes. There are plenty of creative challenges there and will be for a long time.
So, even though it was a Shiny New Idea (and we all know how tempting those Shiny New Ideas are, especially when we’re slogging through other stories…I’m writing one and editing another currently), I’m going to shelve it for a little while. My thoughts are that build up a couple more releases for my self published Myrtle Clover series, finish out my responsibilities for my trad published series, and then I’ll write the book. Because clearly—the book has to be written.
It made me think of all the writers who are facing similar questions: should I write this new story? When? Should I write the story under my name, if it’s a different genre than I usually write? And for writers who might be increasingly dependent on the income they’re now making from the more commercial genres (mystery, romance, YA), should they take a break from a lucrative gig to branch out into a less-popular area…like literary fiction? When might they reach the point where they feel they can take on something completely different?
Have you faced these questions as a writer? How did you choose your course?
Image: MorgueFile: can131
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