I'm still at the "writing lots but finishing nothing" stage. Now I think I've realised why!
I decided to go through a pile of memory sticks sat in the top drawer and found writing that spans 4 years, none of it ever at a point where I could say it was complete. I noticed that a lot of my "unique" and "fresh" ideas weren't actually either - there was a repitition to the themes but each with a different branch shooting out. Then it occured to me, that I may never finish if I don't decide which branches to nurture and which to cut off for a different project.
If my writing is my home, then these memory sticks were definately the cupboard under the stairs!
So, to stop the rambling through these branches I'm asking, Does anyone else have this task ahead of them? How are you going to decide what to pull together and what to pull apart?
Yep I agree with Lorraine.
Paul.
Emma, what you've got is a collection of early drafts. The task of writing is a huge one; you write, you rewrite, you edit, you rethink, you chuck it in a drawer and go and do anything else you can think of for days, weeks, months, even years, in a kind of despair. But when you come back, and open the drawer, you look with much clearer vision. You're no longer hung up in the creation of that piece, and you can see its shortfalls.
That doesn't mean it's bad: it means it's a rough beginning, and there's a lot of polishing to do before it's finished.
Some authors only ever write the same plot or theme, just in different ways. Victoria Holt was a writer of historical romance who sold millions of books - and every one of them told the same basic story. It was the characterisation, the change of the scene, the slight variations in plot, and the quality of the writing that kept people faithful to her work.
Last year, while writing a modern novel, I found one I'd sent off to a publisher ten years ago. I'd done the classic 'stuff it on the sulking shelf' thing, convinced the publisher had been blind to refuse it. They weren't, of course; and it's taken me well over a year to rewrite it and to add to it, to give the heroine an active role (hadn't seen how passive she was), and to make the whole thing infinitely better. I'm almost there... Meanwhile, the other novel is still in my head; and then I found another partial one on an old laptop that is actually really good.
I look at this as having a lot of work to do, not a lot to chuck in the bin.
Look at all your beginnings, and see if there is one that you like best. What have you learned, from reading all of them? Can you rewrite this one, applying those lessons?
Every writer has one feature that is unique to them: their voice. It may not be the idea or the plot that's so different, but the authorial voice can be the one defining factor that sets it apart from the rest.
Simple answer? A writer writes. Sit down and start now!