One of several things Konnie and I do not have in common is ADD. I have it. She
doesn’t. Which probably explains why she has only four incomplete
manuscripts and a whole slew of complete ones while I have six manuscripts for
which I have finished the rough draft on, and well over 20 for which I haven’t
finished at all, and that doesn’t the count all variations of any one story
which I’ve kept, but discarded.
And,
if you count her monster sci-fi manuscript as five novels (it’s certainly long
enough to be that many), she has ten completed novels, whereas I only have
six, and that’s counting two for which I did finish the rough on but have since
done some major rewriting on, and the rewrites are not finished. And here I am
the one with loads of time to write and she’s the one who has a daily battle
with her family to get even five minutes to write!
Somehow,
I’m getting the feeling being able to come up with new stories so often isn’t
as such a good thing after all. I mean, how can it benefit me if I can’t finish
what I start?
I
don’t think I can, or would even want to change how I often start a story,
decide I need to change or delete some major point in the story, and
essentially start over. I mean, really, if you were to open my documents, you’d
find tons of files; and in each folder there are several files, most are older versions,
or variations of the story then there’s the “clips” file for that story, and
character list, and a calendar of events for that story. Some also have lists
like who’s in what class, or I have three with essentially family group sheets
for the story. Two of those have family groups for several different families
but the other one is for just one very large family.
And,
if I hadn’t lost them before I got a scanner, I’d have floor plans and/ or maps
for several of these stories in the file too. I really need to work on replacing
them. I drew them once; I should be able to draw them again.
And
in some of these files, without my various “notes” files, I wouldn’t even know
what the story was now, or why I started it. Why I have one or two files, which
are just notes (nothing more than an idea) that I’ve yet to expand into a
story! I’m not even counting them on my incomplete story list.
In
fact, just counting the ones which have reached a word count of twenty-five
thousand or higher I have seventeen unfinished manuscripts, not counting the
two finished but now in the middle of major rewrites. And not counting all the variations
of any one story or the ones, which are just notes, I’ve started another eighteen
stories. I have just notes on four and one scene that hasn’t got a story to go
with it at all!
On
top of this, for the last three years, my writing goal has been to complete at
least two novels and I haven’t done it once. So here I am again, hoping to
complete a rough. I’m only going for just one at a time, and maybe I’ll finish
one or two of these before November comes around again, when I know I’ll start
a new one. I’ve started a new one every November for the last thirteen years.
(Last year I actually worked on two novels; one is on the under 25k list, and
the other is on the over 25k list. I did manage over 60k this past November.)
Anyway,
my goal for the next two weeks is to at least add around 25k to my Cruise To
Love manuscript, which would bring it to almost done, but not quite. If I can
maintain my Nano average, I should be able to finish this manuscript in three
weeks. That’s if I can stick to it. Here’s hoping I do.
Happy
writing everyone, and wish me luck! J
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