Idea development

I’ve hit a road block in my current WIP that I have to wonder how many writers it sinks. That road block is called The New Idea.

In this particular case, it’s not a completely new idea, but rather a development of the existing idea. It kind of came about because of some musings I’ve been having regarding the novel form as it relates to novels I’ve been reading recently. I’ll take a digression to do a brief background.

A lot of the novels I’ve been reading recently are written in first person, limited perspective. To specify, that means that the narrator is living the story as it’s happening. This is different from a novel like The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum, which is written in first person, but the narrator is telling the story years after it happened, giving the character a more authorial voice that benefits from a full knowledge of the events of the story.

The story idea I got back in January seemed to come to me in that first person, limited perspective style. As I started on the project and wrote the first few chapters of it, I realized that I probably didn’t have enough for a full length novel (around 300 pages). Trying to shake that nagging thought, I was determined to just write the damn story, write “The End” on something for the first time in 7 years, and develop it in the direction that it wanted to go in during the rewrite.

The problem came when, after a hiatus of a few weeks, I wanted to get back to working on it. To do so, I decided to read what I’d written so far to pick the threads of the story back up. When I did so, I couldn’t help but think ahead to the rewriting process, how I should be rewriting the first 40 pages and the ideas I should be incorporating into the second half of the story. Since then, I’ve been wrestling with what I should do: start the rewrite now (basically start over); or push through these feelings and write “The End” like was my goal and leave the rewriting for when I get to that part of the process.

As I’ve written this out, I think I’m leaning toward the latter. When I started writing this story, I made a commitment to myself, that I was going to finish something, that I was going to write “The End” on something, and prove to myself that I wasn’t done being a writer.

I think it’s a good idea and that it can be a good story. I still believe in it and I still want to believe in it. Somehow, after finishing Clean Freak, I got it into my head that I was able to sit down and write a novel, start to finish. I’d forgotten (or blocked out) all the steps I took along the way. I’d forgotten my process of writing a novel.

I’m trying to rediscover it.

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On a personal note, I apologize to those of you who read this far for the lack of post last week. I had a health issue that kept me away from the computer. But I’m happy to be back, offering what meager entertainment and maybe enlightenment that I can.