Thursday 28 April 2016

X is for Ex-

Anyone else feel like the hardest letters come last? Maybe there's a reason why thery're last in the alphabet (even though there are other letters, but you Enlish people ignore them).

So, what to do about X? Maybe do a "top 10 list", write about some "unknown, unspecified, or variable factor, number, person, or thing" as a dictionary suggests?

As I tried to come up with something, I went about thinking about the letter, sounding it in my head - and there it was. The sound. Ex.

There's a long list of "ex" in my life. Things, places, people, relationships, dreams, projects, feelings, knowledge… the list of what have once been more or less important to me but now is past is longer than I care to think about.

So for today I'll limit myself to consider some of the writing projects I have abandoned. Or shall I be nice and label them "not finished" instead? A few of them might still be dug out and finished, or fixed, or revised, or completely rewritten, but let's be honest here… They were abandoned for a reason. Most often it was not because I lost interest in it, or that a new idea lured me away from it.

The ex-projects simply wasn't good enough. The idea never took shape, didn't evolve into a premise that had a fighting chance to became a whole story arch. Sometimes they weren't even given an outline (Camp Nano 2013, for example, when I tried total pantsing). The thing collapsed somewhere in the swampy middle when I couldn't keep characters or plot straight. Sometimes I outlined too much and it wasn't much to add after that (but it might work as a short story if I get back to it?).

There are a few gold nuggets in that ex-projects lists. Of course. One day I'll go through it, pick the hearts out and see if I can merge two or three of them together to make something new. Something totally genre-bending and unheard of.

It will be amazing.

3 comments:

  1. An excellent post for X.

    Mason
    Alex's Ninja Minion

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  2. I think many people have a stack of unfinished "ex" projects that are in the background waiting to be revisited someday.

    @WeekendsinMaine
    Weekends in Maine

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