What You Want To Write vs What Wants To Be Written

Here we go again. This post started as another post on my Facebook author page and became too long. As July's Camp NaNoWriMo approaches, there is a conflict. I haven't decided on which story to write yet, but it boils down to this: There is the story I want to finish writing (Return To Origin) and the story that wants to be written (Timewatch).

After finishing the first draft of The Curse in 2011, I began to write Return To Origin, which was the story that wanted to be written at the time. However, I made the mistake of stopping to start editing The Curse. Since then, I worked on Return To Origin a bit at a time, but the first draft is nowhere near finished.

Then there's the sequel to the short story, The Immortals, and my novel, The Curse, titled Caretaker. The Immortals is in The Acts of 1. I started Caretaker after finishing the first draft of Rickshaw, New Mexico. At the time, this was my best first draft. However, as with Return To Origin, I stopped. Why? Because The Curse needed, yet again, more editing. As with Return To Origin, the first draft of Caretaker is nowhere near finished. My ideal reader wants me to finish both of these stories.

Here's the point. Whenever there is a conflict between what you want to write and what wants to be written, choose the story that wants to be written. That's where your mind and heart are. Once you start, do not stop until the story is finished. That's the mistake I made with Return To Origin and with Caretaker, and that is why their first drafts remain incomplete.

If I had to choose now, instead of Return To Origin, July's Camp NaNoWriMo project will be Timewatch. It's the story that wants to be told. So far. there are only a few disjointed scenes, including Woodrow and Janowski (from A Flash In Time) going through the swamps of 1753 of what will be Chalmette, Louisiana, searching for legendary swamp demons. The scene may go into the story and it may not. Obviously, new characters will be introduced and maybe even surprise appearances by characters from some of my other stories.

Also, if Timewatch turns out to be the story I write next month, then I will publish A Flash In Time (from The Acts of 1) by itself. At this time, I haven't decided whether to charge 99 cents or make the short story permafree. A Flash In Time is my oldest story idea, beginning when I was sixteen years old. It's about a retail manager who, on the night of December 28, 1999, is driving home from work in the middle of a thunderstorm and in a flash, it's a sunny Friday afternoon in September 2011. As with George Foster in Rickshaw, New Mexico, Bryan Mixon has no idea how he got there or how he'll get home. Although George's and Bryan's situations are similar, their stories are different. If published, the cover of A Flash In Time will most likely be done with Amazon's Cover Creator.

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Have a great day!!!