Revisiting Old Stories · 12:10am Nov 30th, 2021
How do you continue a story based on eight years of work? 
I've tried to write up new chapters, but it's like the momentum is lost. It's not impossible to gain back, but it feels very out of reach. I don't think I won't finish the story... I mean, just look at this! Talk about coming rising something from the dead. 
A big struggle here stems from my writing style and how much it's shifted since the start of this story; even since 2018. I'm also constantly at odds with myself, struggling to write something as concise as possible but then going back and wondering if I didn't write enough detail somewhere. Back and forth, and back and forth. It's very frustrating. Online friends and a few others that I've reached out to tell me I'm worrying over nothing, though. 
But for Feather Steel... I feel something is wrong. Not with the story itself, but with how I'm maybe approaching things. I even tried going back and fixing earlier chapters by skewing perspective so it was only ever limited. A style which I'm very partial to, but that was a mistake since the story is meant to be more open than that and "omni".
I also often worry about free time and struggle to finish other projects so much so that I made a promise to myself to not start new stories until I've finished projects I'm already working on. This includes things like Feather Steel but also include Reflection of Nightmares and a few other things that I really should place onto Offprint when the time is right. Along with one story that I started during this promise... a story that I won't be publishing until completed. I just can't stand leaving stuff unfinished.
There is no possible way to know if you wrote what you intended until you write it down!
Just do it dude. Let it out all jank and whatever and see where you end up Stop worrying about how it looks or where you're going with it. You have the general idea where you want it to go yes? You can always come back to fix it up when you start to figure it out better.
First of all, I encourage you to give in to your Muse when it gives you inspiration a d passion for new stories. That is always a gift that should be savored.
If you like, consider your to-be-completed stories as a scheduled activity. Fridays from 7 pm to 8:30 is Feather Steel time and 8:45 to 10:15 is Reflection. If the prose and description don’t come, block out the chapter in broad strokes. If the current chapter isn’t working, write down exactly why, ponder it for a few minutes. If no inspiration comes, work on a future chapter or scene where you have a good vision of events.
This way, you can commit to a set amount of work without bottling up your creativity.
I don't know why I'm writing this.
Heh. I can tell when I’ve been working on really old stories because I can see the difference in the page breaks I used (the gdocs one, ***, literally typing out [center]* * *[/center], and then using the autocorrect in gdocs to turn *** into [hr]). I’ve also saved copies of files I haven’t touched in years just to read them later, and then editing the copies so the old timestamp stays, like history. It’s kinda fun to see how my writing has changed. In some ways I think I’ve gotten better... and in others, I think I got worse. But hey, if I can finish a story I started writing 7 years ago, I’d say there’s still hope.
It’s kindof frustrating, though, seeing old stuff like “ooh, I wouldn’t do that now...” but it’s such an intrinsic part of the story that you kinda have to leave it where it is. This is why I never post unfinished stories, so I can always go back and edit.
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Do I know where I want the story to go? Yes, theRedBrony and I drafted out this outline which finishes the story. The issue doesn't so much lie there but for me but getting back into the groove of things, you know? If it doesn't feel right while I write it out, then I'll just end up feeling bad. However, you sort of gave me an idea of what I might do.
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I suck at schedules. But I may try it again once I get back to a real job. The future chapter thing is a good idea, though.
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LOUD NOISES!
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Dude, I know exactly what you mean. I got so used to doing the [i ] [/ i] thing for every single kind of formatting since gdocs used to be broken uploading to Fimfiction. I do like going back to old stuff, too.
I might start re-writing Feather Steel (not changing story beats or anything about plot) with more detailed descriptions until I get to the current live chapter. Or something like that. I've seen what happens when people try to re-write their stuff and they change everything about it, lol... it doesn't end well. (Normally it doesn't.)
But it's very fun to go back and compare.
Ah, sorry about the difficulties you've been having; good luck!
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At this point if you really are struggling to match your new and old styles, i say reboot, same premise but diferrent execution that you way the momentum flows better.
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The rut I get into is the "I absolutely have to get X done before I can do anything else" one. That leaves me stuck for ages. I once wasted 3 days trying to get a scene to work that just wouldn't. Since I had an impatient co-author, I didn't have the luxury of getting back to it later! I had to settle for taking the two elements I needed for later and adopting them into a different scene.
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I don't think it's a great idea to 100% reboot, but I do feel I should re-write certain descriptions of scenes to add a bit more detail.
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For me, it's not 100% that but close. I often feel annoyed that I haven't finished something older and just want it done, but then I worry that I'm wasting my free time that I could use on other things, such as newer projects.
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