To Do List

I have about eight different projects which are in various stages of completion (translation: they still need a lot of work).

Now I’m not counting the random thoughts, the first paragraph or stanza of an idea that I’ve had and then abandoned. I have too many of those to mention. But I keep them around in case the idea bears fruit one day. I’m talking about work that actually has taken on form and substance and could actually see the light of day… not today, but one day. Here they are…

• The shortest of them is a poem that I originally was trying to turn into a rhyming picture book. But I decided that there’s not enough of an idea there to support an entire story, so it’s staying a poem. I just can’t come up with the last stanza though. I’m trying to wrap it up and I’m just not happy with anything I come up with. So occasionally, I open the file, blow the dust off it, and try to come up with an ending. I’ve been doing this for about a year.

• Two middle readers. These are more ambitious projects for me. Until now, I’ve been mainly focusing on picture books. So I’m stepping out of my comfort zone here, but I think that as a writer, I owe that to myself. If I don’t challenge myself, there’s no way I can improve. I have the stories framed out and I think I know where I want to go with these. I just have to fill it out. I think I might be working on these next. I think that these books will serve as good creative outlets for me.

• A coming of age piece that I’ve been discussing with an old friend of mine, he want to write a book about our exploits growing up. This book will be turned into a movie, but the book needs to be written first. This will be a challenge since I’ve never tried writing a collaborative piece before. I’m curious to see how our different styles will mesh and how this will eventually come together.

• The first rhymer I’ve ever written. It was a cute idea with one major flaw. It lacked any kind of plot whatsoever. I’ve spent quite some time trying to surgically insert one into it.

• Another rhymer that is full of stanzas and random lines serving as markers showing where I want the story to go. Now if I could only connect the dots.

• A prose story that needs major revision and restructuring. It’s something that could work, but it would be the literary equivalent of raising a house off of its foundation. I need to brace myself before I take on this project.

• The last one is a prose story that could probably be publisher ready with a minimal amount of effort. The problem here … I just can’t bring myself to work on it. I’m not excited about it any more. So I’m letting this one stew for awhile. If I’m not into it, I’m sure that it will show. I’m not about to become lazy with my writing just so I can complete a story.

So I thought that in coming up with this literary “To Do List” I would be inspired to start working on one of these projects. Fat chance, I think my Muse is on vacation. All I’ve accomplished is opening some files that I haven’t looked at in a while. (Well that, and I got a decent blog entry out of this  ) I’m not giving any excuses here. Writing has always been a cyclical process for me and if I’m not actually writing, there’s always some writing related business to attend to. That should keep me busy until my Muse gets back from the Bahamas.

Time to Recycle

I just wrapped up a rhyming picture book manuscript, but I’m still itching to write some more. So I started off by opening some files that contain works in progress and I took a look at what I had come up with so far, no luck there. But in doing that, I did realize something. When it comes to story ideas and works in progress, I’m an electronic pack rat. I don’t toss anything away. What’s funny to me is that I never thought of myself as a pack rat before. But when it comes to my writing, I am.

Thank goodness that I keep everything electronically, because otherwise I’d have stacks of paper from the floor to the ceiling. I even have two or three work-in-progress versions of the same story. Sometimes a previous idea might be the best one. I just hate to throw ideas away. I always feel that I’ll have a use for them someday. Believe me, it’s not because I think all of my ideas are golden, they’re not. I think that it’s because if an idea doesn’t work here that doesn’t mean it won’t work in another story.

So I keep them around, hoping to recycle them one day when I’m stuck on another story or when I think I can fix whatever doesn’t work with them. Most likely though, they’ll just stay unworkable ideas in unworkable stories. But who knows, I’m an optimist at heart. Otherwise, I would have quit long before I ever had any success at this.

Now what else do I have here? …