What Next?

Five months ago I cancelled my story, 'Nuclear Winter,' for various reasons, but the main reasons being:

1. I anticipated that I wouldn't be able to continue writing it in the future
2. I was frustrated with my lack of progress
3. I wasn't confident in the quality of my own writing

Well, a lot has happened since then. I'm still here, so for now the first point has been rendered moot.

As for the second part, the strangest thing happened: just after I finished the story, I decided to create a plot summary so I would have some sort of record of my idea while it was still fresh in my head. I just started writing and writing, unencumbered by the need to write scenes and dialogue and all that other story stuff. Ironically, during the seven days immediately after I cancelled my story I made more progress than I had in the entire year prior. Over the next several weeks I kept adding, venturing far past where I had left off and plunging into new territory. I had to create some of the details on my own and left plenty of empty spaces to fill in later, but I managed to get everything in my head onto paper in a coherent and organized fashion. Last month I laid out my plans for the final chapter and the epilogue. The total length of what was originally intended to be a short summary document came out to around 100 pages.

I now ask myself where I should go from here. As I said in the previous blog post, part of me wants to bury this thing and move on to other things. Yet at the same time part of me also wants to continue to further develop this idea which I have so lovingly nurtured for six and a half years now, or at least milk it for all that it's worth. I have often felt that if I placed my idea in the hands (hooves?) of a better, more talented, more likable, and more consistent writer then maybe it could have reached its full potential and become popular with readers. But I always answer that by reminding myself that this is ultimately my story, and that if it were taken by anybody else it would cease to be the same story, but simply a different one, heavily gutted and with a lot of stuff missing.

But back to the main point: where to go from here? I have considered a few different options for further development/refinement/milking of my idea:

1. Publish the plot summary document, either in full or condensed into a bullet pointed list, so that anybody who wants to know what my full plans for the story are can see it, and possibly give me some feedback. What I published so far was only the tip of the iceberg of what I had planned. Obviously, the list would contain spoilers for major plot events. I have somewhat held back on this out of fear that the readers of the existing story (and anyone who may have liked it) might see the story as something different than what I intend it to be. It's hard to know since I, as the author, have a 'bird's eye view' of the story that no one else does. I really want to change that, but I have no idea how anybody would react to it.
2. Write another summary document with details about characters, settings, events, etc. so I don't forget those either. Much of this is just excess information and not all of it would necessarily make it into the story, but I think it would be nice to know to further flesh out the idea.
3. Write a few more chapters for the original story in the original format (and maybe even publish them!), knowing that the story in its entirety will likely never be completed.
4. Attempt to re-write the story, using the original idea but overhauling it to try to cut out as many unnecessary details as possible so I can "cut to the chase."
5. Attempt to re-write the story, recycling the setting and characters to produce a new story that follows the same basic plotline. This method would force me to cut most of the story and leave only the core elements. This would greatly shorten the length and quicken the pace of the story, but I feel it might cut out a lot of the soul and otherwise memorable moments from the original. It would also require me to come up with new ideas to restructure the plotline, which might take some time to do.
6. Start a new story using the same setting and events but seen through the eyes of new characters, using the working title: Nuclear Winter: Reloaded. I don't have that much planned for this story yet, so writing would largely be by the seat of my pants.
7. Create another plot summary document for my ideas regarding possible sequels (I had long intended to make this story into a series).
8. Recycle one of my sequel ideas into the setting of a role-playing game. I think the idea is loose enough that it could work as one and it would be interesting to see what players could come up with. However, I am very inexperienced with role playing games so I don't know how such a project would turn out.

I intend to do #7 no matter what, and I am likely to do #1 simply because I have done most of the work on it already, though I am hesitant to actually publish it if nobody is interested. I feel very strongly about going ahead and doing #8, even in spite of both my earlier described inexperience and a likelihood that I might never get to actually play it.
#5 and #6 are maybe's, which could occur if I really feel like it but might also not happen. If I choose to do one, then I don't think I would have time to select the other. #4 is unlikely to happen, as I feel it would be better to just keep going with what I've already got (#3) than to rewrite what is already published. I freely admit that my story could really use an editor to make it more readable because I am very hesitant to cut anything I've written and will often come up with some sort of rationale for why even the tiniest detail NEEDS to be preserved.

I know that nobody even bothers to read these posts because I'm a no-name author with a dead story. If anyone has even bothered to read all the way through, I thank you for reading my little essay here and would greatly appreciate knowing your thoughts.

Comments

[Nozimo]

Loved how you put laid bare your thoughts on the matter of your story. While it is a shame that your story is so far cancelled, one can at least understand your frustrations with putting so much time and effort in to your story. Every writer should follow what they desire, even if it is the hard choice.
Good luck in your future writing, and I will be sure to read it if it pops up.