How many unfinished works do you have in your treasure box?

Laer Carroll · Apr 10, 2017

Every few weeks I get a new inspiration that I just MUST work on. Most often they are the first few pages or scenes for a novel. (I don't care to write shorter works.)

Often I quit there. The work no longer interests me. But I don't delete them from my archives (which is duplicated both online and offline in several media). Because I sometimes find weeks or months or even years later that one of them urges me to return to them, to work on them more. Several of my completed novels came from these set-aside works. Sometimes I use them as is, as the beginning or middle or even end of some book. Sometimes I use them much rewritten.

So I've come to think of my "trunked" works as treasure, the "trunk" as a treasure chest.

What about you? Do you have a similar system?

Ellis Clover · Apr 10, 2017

I don't have a 'system' as such - although I love the idea of the treasure chest! I do keep my in-progress stories (no matter how long it's been since I've worked on them) in the same folder as my active WIPs, and will return to one or another every few months - tweaking, adding, redirecting. Like yourself, I'll sometimes transplant bits and pieces from stagnant stories into better ones.

I have a bunch of these 'stalled' stories, mostly shorts... not sure why I keep writing them actually, as I'm much better at longer-form fiction. Probably 10-15 in all, plus two novels that I'm approaching in a very non-focused way while I work primarily on my other WIP novel.

Denevius · Apr 10, 2017

My writing habit is a little different. I *almost* never start any piece of writing that I don't finish. I would say 93% of the time I hold true to this. For me, at least, this routine develops a mindset of completing what I started.

That small percentage I don't finish, I'm not sure what becomes of them. It's been a long time since I've done it.

CameronJohnston · Apr 11, 2017

I think I have about a half dozen old novels that fizzled out between 10k and 20k words. Mostly because I read them back and hated the writing. That was a while ago now though, and I've improved a hell of a lot since then. I may go back and plumb them for ideas at some point.

StoryofWoe · Apr 11, 2017

I have probably half a dozen short story scraps camped out in a "Shelved" folder and about the same number of outlines for novels that will never be written. I've reached a point where I (and others) have noticed a significant improvement in my craft since I started writing fiction, so reading old work tends to result in a lot of cringing on my part. I have recycled projects in the past, but these days I have more luck and fewer "facepalm" moments when starting fresh. If I were to recycle anything now, it would most likely be the ideas rather than the words themselves.

Layla Nahar · Apr 11, 2017

My ratio of finished to unfinished is about 3 to 30 or more. My problem is more getting stuck in the beginning than losing interest. I work on paper. I found that the Luck Brand store paper bags from a few years ago are *exactly* the size to hold sheets of paper, so I've reduced all my story notes to one of those bags.

Marlys · Apr 11, 2017

I cleared my treasure box of four items last month. Finished a novel I started in 2006 and picked up again in January; turned 3 other intended novels into novellas/novelettes--I'd thought about them a lot, but had made minimal progress on the page. Made a fresh start on a fifth project I think will still work as a novel.

Still in the box: pirates, ghosts, a Roman slave, a serial killer, and the Tour de France. Er...to be clear, that's six projects (two ghosts), not one.

I don't box short stories. For me, they either work or they don't.

DancingMaenid · Apr 11, 2017

I really like the idea of looking at it as a "treasure chest!"

I definitely have a reserve of ideas that I haven't fully fleshed-out or tackled yet. I feel that I'm generally good at finishing stuff, but over the years I've come up with some ideas that were fairly ambitious for me, or characters who didn't have a strong plot to inhabit. I'm still a reasonably young writer, and I have some ideas that I came up with when I was 16 or something and didn't have the experience or skill to do them justice. My current work in progress is one of those stories, and it's been really fun to do things with it that I couldn't have done then.

I tend to come up with characters who stick with me for a long time, and I can come up with all sorts of material for them.

harmonyisarine · Apr 11, 2017

I tend to write the opening to something and then wander off for a few years before returning to it. I rather like the idea of calling it a "treasure box" instead of a trunk! Right now I've got a very strong urge to pick one that was put away over 10 years ago, and that I had entirely forgotten about. I lost the original snippet I wrote for it (it was in high school, and purged with those papers), but the idea wormed its way back into my mind.

Myrealana · Apr 11, 2017

I've never thought of it as a Treasure Chest.

More like a junk drawer.

As to how many, let's go with "lots."

At least half a dozen novels and many short stories. So many short stories...

Laer Carroll · Apr 11, 2017

Denevius said:
My writing habit is a little different. I *almost* never start any piece of writing that I don't finish. I would say 93% of the time I hold true to this. For me, at least, this routine develops a mindset of completing what I started.

...it's a good habit to cultivate. But as you point out, it may not be work for others, as we are all different. For me I find when I force myself to complete something it turns out poorly, so I gave that up long ago.

StoryofWoe said:
I've reached a point where I (and others) have noticed a significant improvement in my craft since I started writing fiction...

Steven King advises us to READ MORE, WRITE MORE in order to improve. Even if we don't finish something the mere fact that we exercise our "writing muscles" as we write helps to make us better.

Denevius · Apr 11, 2017

For me, at least, I no longer think of my fiction as poorly written. After a couple of decades of pounding away at it, I'm relatively competent at putting together prose to a completion that's satisfying. The question that still lingers after every piece is tagged 'The End', is if it's publishable, and where. Pro (maybe finally), semi-pro, pay, token, or no-pay.

This is only in the last five years, however. Eight plus years ago, though I still completed almost everything I started, all of that is unpublishable (though some ideas are recyclable). And ultimately, every twelve months, I probably write a maximum of a 40,000 words. I'm not exactly a prolific writer, but I tend to be persistent.

Tinuviel · Apr 11, 2017

I think I have about five unfinished novels, plus a few songs or poems that never took off...and probably never will. Some of them I just wonder if I should throw away, but I can't bring myself to do it. Plus, I've heard it is a terrible idea, because you never know when you might want to come back to them! So they dwell on, collecting figurative dust.

chompers · Apr 11, 2017

Laer Carroll said:
Every few weeks I get a new inspiration that I just MUST work on. Most often they are the first few pages or scenes for a novel. (I don't care to write shorter works.)

Often I quit there. The work no longer interests me. But I don't delete them from my archives (which is duplicated both online and offline in several media). Because I sometimes find weeks or months or even years later that one of them urges me to return to them, to work on them more. Several of my completed novels came from these set-aside works. Sometimes I use them as is, as the beginning or middle or even end of some book. Sometimes I use them much rewritten.

So I've come to think of my "trunked" works as treasure, the "trunk" as a treasure chest.

What about you? Do you have a similar system?

Same thing with me, except some of them aren't exactly ideas for a story, but a theme. So I don't have an idea of the story yet, but I set up something in preparation for it...

I think I've got like 30+.

ETA: Holy crap, I just checked and it's 55. I'm trying to finish up some this month, if that makes it any better.

Mark HJ · Apr 12, 2017

I have about 20 dead or dying '20k starts' decomposing in a heap of 400+ snippets. I rake them over from time to time.

(Then there's 15 'completed' novels, one of which I self-pubbed.)

Dona St Columb · Apr 12, 2017

I have three 'abandoned' wip's that I don't intend to go back to (but never say never, so I haven't deleted the files or anything!) All three were novels- one abandoned at 4k words, one at 40k words, and the other I meticulously planned and never wrote a single word of!

I also have two 'stalled' wip's that I absolutely do intend to go back to, it's just the timing wasn't right. Both of those are paused at around about the same 30-40k mark.

I also have two (nearly three) completed novels, one has been through five drafts and beta readers, one at completed first draft stage and the third is soooo close to being done...hence me being online procrastinating right now!

That actually isn't as bad as I thought it would be, reading it back. I too feel like I get a new idea every week and of course want to dive into it straight away, but I think I'm getting better at knowing which are the 'genuinely worth exploring' ones, and the 'I'm just distracting myself' ones!

The Urban Spaceman · Apr 12, 2017

Laer Carroll said:
Every few weeks I get a new inspiration that I just MUST work on. Most often they are the first few pages or scenes for a novel. (I don't care to write shorter works.)

Often I quit there. The work no longer interests me. But I don't delete them from my archives (which is duplicated both online and offline in several media). Because I sometimes find weeks or months or even years later that one of them urges me to return to them, to work on them more. Several of my completed novels came from these set-aside works. Sometimes I use them as is, as the beginning or middle or even end of some book. Sometimes I use them much rewritten.

So I've come to think of my "trunked" works as treasure, the "trunk" as a treasure chest.

What about you? Do you have a similar system?

I write a lot of flash fiction. I probably put a third of these on my "consider elaborating/adapting into a longer work" shelf. Sometimes I'll blend several ideas together. I consider no word I write to be wasted. Even the stories I look back on and think, "Meh, that's pretty crap" are part of the learning curve.

Cindyt · Apr 12, 2017

An 18th Century historical WIP1
A late 1860s historical
A current day crime novel WIP2
At least one sequel to the crime novel
An autobiography WIP3
A current day horror novel
A Roman a clef

Curlz · Apr 12, 2017

Laer Carroll said:
So I've come to think of my "trunked" works as treasure, the "trunk" as a treasure chest.

This is exactly what they are! Treasures. Sometimes I combine them into one document and they start looking like chapters. Sometimes a common plot begins to emerge, like making a quilt out of patches. It's fun.

chompers said:
I think I've got like 30+.

ETA: Holy crap, I just checked and it's 55. I'm trying to finish up some this month, if that makes it any better.

You're my hero now :e2cheer:

semolinaro · Apr 12, 2017

They're not necessarily unfinished works per se, but more 'an endless spewing fountain of ideas that I don't have time to write' lol. At the moment, I have about 17 story ideas, with 6-8 of them being solid and inspiring enough to work on daily. I haven't finished a piece of writing in about three years! But I'm always working every day so that one day I might be able to do so again.

Silva · Apr 12, 2017

I refuse to officially start new stuff before I've finished my current WIP, but I do keep a document for each story idea as it comes, for plot notes, character sketches, etc. So far I've got 9-10 novel ideas and 3-4 short story ideas. One of the novel ideas is a re-thinking of something I tried to write when I was a teenager. All the others are from the past two years, which is when I started writing again. When I was a teen, I wrote all on paper, and only have a few snippets left from that time. They'd more accurately be in the "memory box" rather than the "treasure chest." :tongue

Cindyt · Apr 12, 2017

Silva said:
I refuse to officially start new stuff before I've finished my current WIP, but I do keep a document for each story idea as it comes, for plot notes, character sketches, etc. So far I've got 9-10 novel ideas and 3-4 short story ideas. One of the novel ideas is a re-thinking of something I tried to write when I was a teenager. All the others are from the past two years, which is when I started writing again. When I was a teen, I wrote all on paper, and only have a few snippets left from that time. They'd more accurately be in the "memory box" rather than the "treasure chest."

I was the same way, but the other stries kept crying for a voice. So I picked two to flesh on weekends while my WIP1 rests. Works for me.

Maze Runner · Apr 15, 2017

Yeah, me too. About a dozen or more 10 to 20k word false starts. And I have a first draft of one that's about, I donno, maybe 60 or 70k, it's been a while. The writing is terrible, but there's some nice scenes in there and a pretty decent story. Hmm, might take a look at it. But I'd ahve to rewrite the whole thing.

ETA: Might be interesting to have a peek at each other's discards. Maybe we'd see something worthwhile in each other's junk. And then, if the OA (original author) is still uninspired, we could gift it to another with our blessings.

blacbird · Apr 15, 2017

Quite a number, not sure how many. Except I don't consider them to be in a "treasure box". They ain't treasures, which is why they ain't finished.

caw

Odile_Blud · Apr 17, 2017

More than the gods can count.

How many unfinished works do you have in your treasure box?

Aerospace engineer turned writer

watching The Office again

Great Old One

Sick and pale with grief.

Seashell Seller

Resist. Love. Go outside.

New kid...seven years ago!

I aim to misbehave

Aerospace engineer turned writer

A someday author wannabe.

Cat whisperer

Existential quandary

Gettin wiggy wit it

cutsie-pie

Always lost in thought.

saucy

Gettin wiggy wit it

-_-