Post by account_disabled on Dec 28, 2023 3:36:22 GMT
Last month I picked up the revision (third or fourth, I don't even remember it anymore) of a long science fiction story (207,000 characters, just over 33,000 words). It dates back to 2016. The last revision remained – and will remain – unfinished: I couldn't even finish reading it. Days ago I reread another science fiction story (about 118,000 characters, just over 18,000 words), which dates back to 2018, determined to do something with it, but once I finished reading I decided not to do anything more with it. It was these two situations that gave me the idea for this article, but above all that made me ask a question that I had to answer: are these two stories publishable? No, was the answer.
The first one bored me, I don't know why. Maybe too Special Data much time has passed, maybe I no longer find it valid. The second one is better, but it no longer interests me as a story – and I didn't even really want to read it anymore. How to decide what to publish and what not? It's not easy to answer, because there are so many variables. It's nice to publish something, it's nice to see your books, your stories for sale. But there is something more beautiful, stronger in fact, that we need to feel. Our connection to the stories we wrote. That bond between me and those 2 science fiction stories was broken some time ago. Maybe it's the weather's fault, or maybe not. Perhaps the bond was weak and did not last the years.
Or maybe it's my fault, that as time goes by I become more demanding. Sometimes, however, interest in the story has waned. I have stories that have started and never finished. I also have novels that were started and never finished. Stories that date back many years and will remain unfinished... due to loss of interest. I'm no longer interested in writing those stories. They were the loves of the past and love ends, it doesn't always end with a wedding. How to decide what to publish and what not? I understood it from the listlessness in reading those stories, and even before that from the forgetfulness of having started stories and novels. I filled out foolscap sheets and printouts and then abandoned them, but it happened for no apparent reason: as a boy I often got bored of the novels I started to write and so I took them and started another one, destined to end up the same way as the previous ones.
The first one bored me, I don't know why. Maybe too Special Data much time has passed, maybe I no longer find it valid. The second one is better, but it no longer interests me as a story – and I didn't even really want to read it anymore. How to decide what to publish and what not? It's not easy to answer, because there are so many variables. It's nice to publish something, it's nice to see your books, your stories for sale. But there is something more beautiful, stronger in fact, that we need to feel. Our connection to the stories we wrote. That bond between me and those 2 science fiction stories was broken some time ago. Maybe it's the weather's fault, or maybe not. Perhaps the bond was weak and did not last the years.
Or maybe it's my fault, that as time goes by I become more demanding. Sometimes, however, interest in the story has waned. I have stories that have started and never finished. I also have novels that were started and never finished. Stories that date back many years and will remain unfinished... due to loss of interest. I'm no longer interested in writing those stories. They were the loves of the past and love ends, it doesn't always end with a wedding. How to decide what to publish and what not? I understood it from the listlessness in reading those stories, and even before that from the forgetfulness of having started stories and novels. I filled out foolscap sheets and printouts and then abandoned them, but it happened for no apparent reason: as a boy I often got bored of the novels I started to write and so I took them and started another one, destined to end up the same way as the previous ones.