Thread: Which story should I write?

It's been a while, but I finally feel some inspiration and desire to write again. Yet I'm faced with a dilemma: I have five stories of varying genres, lengths and levels of progress; but I don't know which one to write. Each one seems worthwhile to me, and I honestly can't decide between them. I think that simply talking about them might help me pick one, so I'll add a little bit of info about each story.

1. Journey to Skyhaven: It will be a high fantasy novel, Currently I've only written a rough synopsis with some brief info on the lands/cities and main characters. It's a romance/adventure type story with the male and female leads taking two very different paths to a shared goal.

2. "Bonded" (working title): Another high fantasy, young adult novel, Currently just an idea with a few notes written down. A young Centaur goes in search of his father, who was captured years before and put into a sort of zoo for mythical beasts.

3. "The Amber Pendant" (working title): A Steampunk/ Sci-Fi novel, currently just an idea with a few rough scenes written down. It's a romance with an internal conflict. A man must choose between his dreams of captaining his own merchant ship to the far off corners of the Galaxy, or a budding romance with the woman who makes the jewelry he sells.

4. "Crystal Memories" (working Title): A Fantasy/Sci-Fi novel, currently it's a Hellboy Fanfiction that I really want to convert to an original story. This one will require the most work because the entire story must be retooled to remove the Hellboy characters and settings. However, in the six years I've been working on it I've created some wonderful characters and cultures that I really want to use somehow.

5. Letters From Home: I'm a bit reluctant to mention this one as it's a Fallout 3 Fanfiction (and as such I can't really post anything from it on this board). However; I've got two complete chapters which I'm really proud of and I do want to continue this story eventually. I only mention it here because it's still a valid choice in my mind. I could try and retool it into a Post Apocalyptic/Romance novel, but I still love the game and it's really the only fanfic I have left.

Feel free to ask for more information on any of them, I'll appreciate any and all feedback.

~AG

Originally Posted by AmberGizmo

It's been a while, but I finally feel some inspiration and desire to write again. Yet I'm faced with a dilemma: I have five stories of varying genres, lengths and levels of progress; but I don't know which one to write. Each one seems worthwhile to me, and I honestly can't decide between them. I think that simply talking about them might help me pick one, so I'll add a little bit of info about each story.

1. Journey to Skyhaven: It will be a high fantasy novel, Currently I've only written a rough synopsis with some brief info on the lands/cities and main characters. It's a romance/adventure type story with the male and female leads taking two very different paths to a shared goal.

2. "Bonded" (working title): Another high fantasy, young adult novel, Currently just an idea with a few notes written down. A young Centaur goes in search of his father, who was captured years before and put into a sort of zoo for mythical beasts.

3. "The Amber Pendant" (working title): A Steampunk/ Sci-Fi novel, currently just an idea with a few rough scenes written down. It's a romance with an internal conflict. A man must choose between his dreams of captaining his own merchant ship to the far off corners of the Galaxy, or a budding romance with the woman who makes the jewelry he sells.

The first three caught my eye. From what you described, the third seems to be the better option, but I here's what I would do:

It might not make much sense at first, and it can be rather painful to let go, but I recommend taking all those concepts you have from these three stories and merge them into one. How you do it, or which one you take as your main source doesn't matter. But since you have interest in fantasy, having multiple characters is a necessity, and these could all be different characters who could band together (or be against each other) to archive their goals.

I had a similar predicament just a few days ago, and that's what I did. I had three stories I wanted to write:

-- A high-school romance about two interesting characters, both of which have rather broken personalities. (Had already begun writing, and to me that's like being halfway done with the story)

-- A story about a college student that gets cursed by a soul-consuming creature, and has 23 days to live. (Wrote a sample, posted it here, the idea was still rough)

-- A tale of magic, where the main character suddenly gets exposed to another side of the world he had never seen before, by mere chance. (An idea that came up the day before yesterday)

What I did is merge the latter two into the first, which already had solid backgrounds and defined characters, yet was mostly unwritten.

I'm loving the result so far!

It's definitely an interesting idea, I had a brief thought of putting the Namyir (one race from "Crystal Memories") into "The Amber Pendant" as an alien race, but then I realized that they deserve a story of their own because the culture and history I created for them is just so huge. The same goes for "The Amber Pendant" and "Skyhaven" I may not have the plot completely figured out for either of them, but the worlds and cultures of the two stories are pretty well fleshed and they don't seem all that compatible to me. I could honestly go on for days about each of those worlds. Which may be why those three are the most appealing to me at the moment. I may not know the plot, nor all of the characters, but I know the world. I know each of those worlds as well as if I were to step out of my house right into them. In fact, just thinking about it pretty much solidifies these three as my preferred choices.

If that's the case then I vote for number three

Steampunk genre for the win!!! Write it, write it! I'll be your avid reader!

And that Fallout 3 FF looks promising.

Speaking of the fallout fanfic, I actually found the livejournal board that I originally posted it to. The two chapters were still there, I hadn't read them in a while so I reread the story. I have to say, I forgot just how much I loved that story. I also remembered exactly what the next three chapters were going to be about, and eventually remembered the entire plot. Once I remembered all that, I suddenly wanted to play the game (a lot of the action in the story came from things that happened to me while playing). Now I just want to sit down and write out a complete outline and get back to work on what I can easily say is one of my favorite stories.

I do feel a bit bad though, almost like I've wasted everyone's time... to bring up this question and then choose to finish a fanfic (which aren't allowed on this board). However, I should be able to finish this story faster than any of the others since it's the only one with a complete plot. Then I can move on from fanfics entirely and do one of the original stories next.

TheFuhrer: if you like I could pm you a link to the story, since I won't be able to post anything about it here.

I'd really like to thank you guys, I haven't felt this inspired in a long time!

My guess is that you lack a burning desire to write any of them.

Yes, please do send me the link of the fan-fic. Thanks!

Can’t you combine them all into some fantabulous literary extravaganza?

2. "Bonded" (working title): Another high fantasy, young adult novel, Currently just an idea with a few notes written down. A young Centaur goes in search of his father, who was captured years before and put into a sort of zoo for mythical beasts.

Otherwise, I like this one. After the the young centaur is also captured, he could fall in love with a magical flying hedgehog with whom he plots his escape. Later, he finds out his father was the first runner of the Kentucky Derby to jockey himself to victory.

ROFL

Originally Posted by JosephB

Can’t you combine them all into some fantabulous literary extravaganza?

Otherwise, I like this one. After the the young centaur is also captured, he could fall in love with a magical flying hedgehog with whom he plots his escape. Later, he finds out his father was the first runner of the Kentucky Derby to jockey himself to victory.

Sheesh, is there really a reason to be so rude? You may turn your nose up at spec-fic, but that's no reason to get snotty with someone politely asking for advice.

Amber: go with whichever story your mind keeps returning to. Ideas don't expire. There's plenty of time to work on the rest, and every story you write is practice and polishing for the next. Best of luck.

Originally Posted by Leyline

Sheesh, is there really a reason to be so rude? You may turn your nose up at spec-fic, but that's no reason to get snotty with someone politely asking for advice.

Amber: go with whichever story your mind keeps returning to. Ideas don't expire. There's plenty of time to work on the rest, and every story you write is practice and polishing for the next. Best of luck.

Second all this. Sit down and type whichever scene comes to you and try to keep going on that story as long as you can. If you get to the end, it was the right choice. If something else intrudes, and you can't get rid of it, well, maybe then that's the one. All you can really do is decide to try working on one. Then you'll know if it was the choice or not. pp

Originally Posted by ppsage

Second all this. Sit down and type whichever scene comes to you and try to keep going on that story as long as you can. If you get to the end, it was the right choice. If something else intrudes, and you can't get rid of it, well, maybe then that's the one. All you can really do is decide to try working on one. Then you'll know if it was the choice or not. pp

The 'Sage speaks wisdom!

BTW, I noticed in another thread that you have a big problem with not finishing stories. This is, IMO, the single biggest hurdle a writer has to cross before they actually begin to think of themselves as a writer. Have you ever considered the simple expedient of writing the ending first? That, coincidentally, is my usual MO, and was how I finally broke through that barrier many years ago. I also see that you seem to concentrate on novels. While there's nothing wrong with that, it can be a problem if you're having trouble finishing. Short fiction will allow you to focus your attention on a far smaller canvas, requires much less time to keep the all-important inspiration alive, and is over much quicker, reducing the problem of getting bored and distracted. I've found that the more stories you finish, the easier wrapping things up becomes -- and you actually begin to conceive of pieces as integrated wholes rather than just 'cool beginnings' or 'a fun scene'.

This forum is a fine place to get suggestions and help with possible endings if you get stuck. Many folks here don't care to read/critique fragments, but some of us don't mind. Once again, best of luck.

Originally Posted by Leyline

Sheesh, is there really a reason to be so rude? You may turn your nose up at spec-fic, but that's no reason to get snotty with someone politely asking for advice.

Sorry, I don’t have anything against speculative fiction -- just centaurs. They're really pushy and annoying -- and I don't think they deserve any attention at all. Have you ever had a centuar take a dump in your yard?

Originally Posted by JosephB

Sorry, I don’t have anything against speculative fiction -- just centaurs. They're really pushy and annoying -- and I don't think they deserve any attention at all. Have you ever had a centuar take a dump in your yard?

Pretty sure Updike already wrote the definitive centaur book anyway.