Off the rails

[andrewmck]

I'm a bit annoyed with myself at the moment. The story I was writing for the IBD2 anthology (www.eneitpress.com) "Daivadana" has sort of gone off the rails and I don't know what to do with it at the moment.

What started out as a story about ancient evils being dug up in a fast growing city built on the remains of 7000 years of villages and towns, has become more a story of politics! I'm 4500 words in and I haven't even made it to the 'Ancient Evil' yet. There have been lots of hints, but I thought I'd be there a lot sooner than this.

My main character started out (in my mind) as an archeologist, but I couldn't think of any great (and realistic) reasons for him to be doing what he was doing. Once I started writing though, this character revealed himself within the first three paragraphs as someone very different. He is obviously not an archeologist, but some sort of Contractor working for unnamed Governments, whose agenda is ultimately assassination.

The story now seems to have become more about parallels between the evils in the World as it is now (in the Central Asian areas of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan especially), and the evils of the past. I can see how the trajectories of these two strands will eventually collide. This is where things will (hopefully) get truly nasty.

But it seems now that I'm taking too long getting there. If I try and rush towards the ending now, the story will be unbalanced. If I maintain the pace I have been building from the start, the story might be too long to find a home.

On one hand, I'm happy that I'm writing a story that is actually trying to 'say something' about the world around us rather than just telling a straight story without a point. There are some pretty overt political thoughts and observations, as well as a lot of subtle sub-texts that have crept in for those who know anything of the history of the region. But, I'm also thinking it might be too much.

The story I had in mind wasn't going to be about the 'War on Terror', or Western financial backing of internal militant factions, or drug-running and biological warfare. It was just going to be a 'monster story'! A 'dig up ancient evil and pay the price' story. Now it is much more than that. It scares me a little.

I think I'm just going to try and keep writing. See where it goes. I might have a better idea of things once it is all done. Maybe then I can go back and (if it isn't the story I want) chop away until it becomes something more resembling the original idea.

How often does this happen to others? Do you find the story you start out writing can sometimes get away from you?

Comments

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

There's no point being annoyed. Nor is it much help worrying too much about this kind of stuff in the first draft. Just keep on writing and let it reach its conclusion. Then you can stand back and assess what stays, what goes, and what needs to be more completely explored. Right now you're trying to second guess your subconscious and that's always counterproductive. You can't rewrite what hasn't been written. Trust yourself and don't get in the way of the flow.

[ashr501.livejournal.com]

Yep, you're right. That is what I'm doing at the moment with all this thought - getting in the way of the flow.

I think this is why I am annoyed. Not with the story, but with myself. Because things have diverged so much from the original idea I started to re-analyse the story half way through. This seems to have changed something in my thinking, and now the 'flow' is hard to find again.

I'm finding it difficult to just get into that subconscious 'space' where writing is not thinking. Instead, I'm looking at every line, trying to judge where they will lead. I know this is wrong, and probably what is annoying me so much.

[mikandra.livejournal.com]

Stories I write get away from me left, right and centre. Because I may plan a story with scenes to be written and things that need to happen, it's really only a lifeless shell until I find out what the story is about, I mean in term of its deeper theme. I don't find that out until I'm well into writing, and the discovery may lead me in a completely different direction from the way I planned to write the story.

These days, I don't even bother planning a story on paper/screen. I don't start writing until I know where I want the story to end up, but when I know that, I just start waffling. I like this much better than rigidly planning anyway.

This is a reason also that I can't write stories on command. When I read about an upcoming anthology, I delve into my files to see if I have a story that may fit the requirements, rather than trying to write a story to suit the guidelines.

[ashr501.livejournal.com]

Sounds like we 'plot' in quite similar ways. I never really know where a story is going when I start. I have an opening idea and a place I'd like to end up. Most of the time I just go from there and let things fall into place. I always keep that ending in sight though, and normally I can get to that place. This time the story seems to be diverging so far from that ending that it is difficult to write without that goalpost in place.

I always find anthology guidelines a nice challenge, though. I don't always come up with anything worth submitting. Or if I do I often miss the deadline. But I've found some nice ideas springing from guidelines.

[mikandra.livejournal.com]

I always find anthology guidelines a nice challenge, though.

That is an interesting way of looking at it, and something I could do if only the short story medium interested me more. Basically, I suck at short stories because I don't care enough about them.

You hardly ever get anthologies for novels, though ;-) (oh dear, I think an anthology for novels is called a library).