Gone (oh the pain)

[rtilryarms]

I wrote 3 chapters involving action where certain particulars of a famous park are known to me but not necessarily known to the general public.
As a teenager I found secret rooms, writings and a hiding place high up in a tree which had interesting items in a hollowed out knot. Part of this story challenges the curious to go visit and verify. I love writing about secrets and it validates much of the rest of my story.
I was very careful to make sure every detail was accurate. Now I am nearing the end of the book and the last chapters require a visit to the park. The minute details are very important.
I took a day off this week and visited the park and my heart is still dragging the ground.
Gone!

It is all fenced in and mounds of dirt reside in the place of an old maintenance shack. A theater has been razed and monuments disappeared. The tree is still there but for how long?

This book is written in real time. It is not a historical novel.

60,000 words and 4 chapters to go.

Do I trash it?

[tears streaming]

[inexperiencedinker]

Wow....that really sucks....! Let me think about it, and try to come back with something more useful than just sympathy.

[Bufty]

A real bummer. Not feeling the pain, although I can understand and sympathise with the disappointment. Does it make the story any the less effective or enjoyable because the park doesn't exist? Maybe you could incorporate its disappearance into the story?
And re the minute details, if their accuracy can not now be verified, does that not give you more scope?

[Demonica]

Don't trash it. If nothing else its a memorial. More importantly, it is a reminder of why we need stories. If the park had so much meaning to you as a child and you have invested that emotion in your novel, even indirectly, then that quality will be recognized and identified with by every one who has a connection like that to a place from their own childhood.

If you can focus on the sense of connection rather than the real estate, you may find new layers of meaning in your story. It is fiction, so whether the park still exists or not is not relevant to the book being contemporaneous. IMHO.

[aruna]

Don't trash it. If nothing else its a memorial. More importantly, it is a reminder of why we need stories. If the park had so much meaning to you as a child and you have invested that emotion in your novel, even indirectly, then that quality will be recognized and identified with by every one who has a connection like that to a place from their own childhood.



Demonica is right. When we write we keep those things and people alive that everyone else has forgotten, or that have disappeared irrevocably. Think of ancient Rome, ancient Greece, ancient anything. London and Dresden before WWII. The Twin Towers. Dinosaurs. Everything on earth is perishable; so let's write about them before the world forgets.
Also: it's fiction. If you need more details, make them up - nobody can verify it now anyway. If anything your pain wil make the story even more emotional.

[Vanessa]

Is it possible to flip and twist it? Make all that was once real, now a fiction novel. Since the park is gone, there's not really much you can do about that. If you feel the content is worthy of readers, I'd flipped it.

Also is it possible to keep it non-fiction and just tell a story of "how it used to be." Make it more of an adventure on how you found all the secret corners of this place. What happened in those places? You get the idea.

I definitely wouldn't trash it. Good Luck. Keep us posted on your decision.

[ChunkyC]

Keep it in there, Yarmy. Write the story as you intended to write it.

Perhaps you should write a little afterword now while the visit to the park is still vivid in your memory. Note how it felt to go back there and see what has happened, and that the tree itself is still alive. Express your worry about what the future holds for that tree and all the memories cradled in its branches as they cradled you when you were younger.

Something like that could be a very poignant addition to the book.

[maestrowork]

Keep it. If it's a good story, the readers will love it. I think only YOU would care (and rightly so) that the site is gone now. But your readers would only care about the story.
That said, is it a non-fiction book? If it is, and you're right it real time (I wonder why you choose real time then), you have a problem. However, if it's fiction, I'd say keep it.

[Unique]

I feel for ya, I really do. I had a cool tree like that as a child. A great tall cedar with Y limbed branches where you could perch & see, but not be seen. The old Gothic house was gone by the time I got there, but I have pictures of how it used to be; and memories of exploring the basement - which was all that was left.

I went back as an adult and it was all gone. ALL of it. Your 'place' might be gone, but your memories aren't. As someone said, it does give you freedom in your loss. Don't trash it. Remember it. Set your work aside til the pain subsides a bit and continue. It may change your direction, but it doesn't have to.

I'd also suggest to pinpoint your pain. Is it the change in your story that hurts? Or is it the loss of that really cool place and the knowing that no one else will ever see it the way you did? I suspect it's the latter. I feel for ya, I really do.

p.s. is there any chance of you being able to climb that tree? I would. So what if they think you're crazy; you're a writer. We're all crazy (to some degree.)

[inexperiencedinker]

I think the suggestions here are great. Keep it, and maybe incorporate the loss into the story. The location is gone, but not the influence it had in your life, or else you wouldn't have written about. I hope the pain eases!

[rtilryarms]

Thanks y'all. No, I don't think I can salvage it. The park was essential to the story. The plot won't work anywhere else.

The only things I can salvage are the characters. I think they are winners.

I am going to put it aside for now and wait until the new park is complete. It is only a 1 year project. Knowing our city government the way I do that will probably be 5 years!

Since I like the main characters I will write a separate book like a sequel which can stand alone in case this one can't work.

I'm just bummed. I feel like I was 1 month away from finishing my first book.

Who in thier write minds would ever want to be a righter?

[HapiSofi]

Save it. There's magic in real things, especially real secrets. At some point further on, you'll realize what you need to do with your material.

[Bufty]

Thanks y'all. No, I don't think I can salvage it. The park was essential to the story. The plot won't work anywhere else.

I can understand that the setting of the park may be essential to the story, but unless I am missing something, I don't follow why the park has to physically exist? Does the reader have to visit it, or be able to do so, in person?

[ChunkyC]

That's the key. If it isn't essential that a reader be able to visit the real park (how many of them would be able to anyway?), then go ahead and finish the book.

Regardless, save all your material; the book and your feelings about your recent discovery. These are the things truly moving writing comes from.

[rtilryarms]

I can understand that the setting of the park may be essential to the story, but unless I am missing something, I don't follow why the park has to physically exist? Does the reader have to visit it, or be able to do so, in person?

I uncover conspiracies. I only write about true events and embezzle a story around it. In all cases the plot and the story revolve around the true material. I always wanted to write a disclaimer like Eric Von Lustbader "Any similarities to the events and characters to real people are merely coincidental. Except for those who know"

I am not a pure fiction writer. I don't need to be. There are too many real life good stuff out there that I don't need to explore my sick mind for something new.

LOL

[AdamH]

That's horrible but I still say finish it. But here's something you might want to consider before you decide:

I gather if the park was still there you'd still write it, right? Well, what if the park was still around and you finish the novel, it gets published, and you're pumped for getting it out there? Now, what if somewhere down the road...let's say a year after it's published the park gets bulldozed over for a new Walmart? Would that still take away from the magic of the story? I don't think it would. Physical locations come and go but stories are eternal.

Also, "real time" in stories are taken from the POV of the reader unless the author specifies when the action takes place. If you freeze frame that point in time in the story then you'd lose nothing if years down the road a reader flips through the novel in a time the park no longer exists.

You're story is completely salvageable...unless of course you mean that in order for someone to enjoy the story they have to physically be at the park, in which case, trash it. Otherwise, write it! :)

[rowriter]

Maybe you should think about it a while.

I'm inclined to think about the other people who found those rooms and hideaways too - they would certainly appreciate the intricacy of the detail.

My personal thoughts:
I don't see why it necessarily matters whether the park is still there or not. You could have an epilogue explaining it. If you're doing your job as a writer, the reader will be there - on the page, through the page. See if you can do the park justice with the way you remember and write about it.

...is it fair to the park to not finish it? I know, sounds silly but...