Living the Fictional Dream

It is day two of my writing group’s challenge to write a story every day. Thus far, I have written the two required stories. I’m not very enthused by either of them, but my cumulative word count for the two days is 7K and change. That’s some serious wordage!

The first story is the one that really got up there — it’s over 6K on its own. Sadly, it didn’t work out like I’d planned. It is a story set on the moon in a future time when mankind has self-sustaining colonies there. Every since I read about this contest sponsored by the National Space Society I’ve wanted to submit a story. It would be such a cool anthology to be included in. The readership would be way up there, for one thing, since it would be marketed to the whole NSS membership. And, for another thing, I’ve been a sci-fi geek from way back — I love stories about colonies in outer space, travelling in space, etc. You’d think the “Return to Luna” theme would be right up my alley.

The first thing I did when I heard about this anthology was research for world building. I read up on theories and ideas about lunar settlement, the moon’s geography, etc. I came up with what, in my opinion, is a good concept for what life on the moon could be like — there are some sci-fi contrivances, such as terraforming, but not too many. I wanted to keep it more realistic than, say, Star Trek with its replicators and warp engines. My lunar civiliation was multi-cultural, as well. It has five colonies, each one founded by one of the top runners in the space race right now — Japan, China, Russia, India, and the U.S.

Then I started my first story. I wrote on it and wrote on it, then I stopped, and then I wrote some more. But it was never finished. It got longer and longer, but the plot didn’t come to fruition like I’d hoped. It just didn’t gel. So, I abandoned story one, and when my writing group’s contest began, I thought that maybe I could write another one instead. Use the same world, but different characters and a less ambitious plot.

When I started the story yesterday, it felt brilliant. I knew this was the concept that would work and get me into the NSS anthology. But, there is always that disconnect between the story you see in your head and the one you get down on paper. By the end of the day yesterday, I absolutely hated the second moon colonization story. It took all these rabbit trails, and I’m not sure that it goes far enough toward the joy and wonder of living life on the moon. The story is securely set on the moon. I tried to make the world believable, which I think it was, but the plot is a smaller, more emotional plot. While I think the lunar setting added interest, it isn’t integral to the plot like I wish it were. Plus, instead of the 2K I’d hoped for, it’s over 6K. Darn and blast!

I guess every writer has this trouble from time to time. You have a good idea or something inspires you, and the story either dies a quiet death or becomes a huge train wreck, and even throwing more work into it can’t save it.

I’m not quite sure that I’ve given up on the NSS anthology. I still have a few days left to either work on story two and fine tune it to something I’m happy with or to possibly write another one as one of my daily stories for this week. Who’s to know?

What you writers out there think? What do you do when you have a story that just won’t sort itself out, no matter how much you try? Are you quick to abandon them, or do you continue to fiddle with them time and time again?

I’m probably more of the latter, though it does depend on how much effort I’ve put into it. The more I’ve worked on stories, the harder it is for me to let them go.