I’m going to take a minute to pull the curtain back on my process. I get a lot of story ideas, most of which I will never get around to writing. Some of the stories I’ve started will never get finished, and some finished stories will never see print. It’s part of the process of being a creative individual.
I’ve touched on this in a previous post. But I’m going to delve a little deeper and tell you about a few stories I have in the vault, along with how likely they are to ever being finished and published.
-Killing Dr. Lucky
This was what I thought up as a “reverse chamber mystery” where the issue isn’t solving whodunnit, but was instead figuring out “who gets to do it.” It was based on a little known boardgame by a company called Cheapass games. Their game was a reverse version of Clue, where instead of solving a murder, you and your opponents were trying to find and kill a guy without being caught in the act by everyone else. I had gotten a rough plot outline and wrote the first chapter. Problem is, the characters I created for the story weren’t interesting enough for me to develop, and as hard as I tried I couldn’t generate enough interest in the characters to delve any further. This one is probably dead in the water.
-Godmode Redemption
This is the planned sequel to my successful Sci-fi horror novel Godmode. It’s actually supposed to be the second part of a trilogy. There are a lot of worldbuilding, plot and character development issues that are slowing this one down. I want to introduce a new protagonist (Elijah’s daughter Elisha) that I’m having a hard time developing, there are some believability and trope issues with the plot I have set up, and I really didn’t think far enough ahead about the type of world the story happens in when I wrote the first book, so I have to explain a lot of stuff I didn’t think I’d have to explain. Plus there is the issue of developing the returning characters, and figuring out what roles they have in the new installment. And the issue of staying true to what made Godmode work (the horror elements, the action scenes, and – most importantly because they were the most popular element of the story – the flashbacks). This story has a lot of moving parts, and I’ve had a hard time figuring out how to make it work. I haven’t given up on it, though.
-Losers
This is a combination sci-fi and sports novella that started off as a short story I wrote for one of my creative writing classes back in college. I realized I could add more character development and worldbuilding to it to possibly expand it into a novel. I didn’t quite make it – the story is about 45,000 words long. But I am happy with how it turned out. Now the issue is taking the next steps with it. I need beta readers to look it over and pick it apart, and I haven’t found anyone willing or able to take the time to do that. There are some serious questions I have with the way I told the story that I need an extra set of eyes for. Then after that there is the issue of finding a publisher that a) publishes novellas, b) publishes sports fiction and c) would take a chance on an unorthodox storytelling style. That has been easier said than done. I’ll figure something out soon, though.
-Bad Meets Evil
My issues with this completed crime/farce/satire novel have been well documented in previous posts. This one will never see the light of day.
-The Rise and Fall of the Krush Krew
This was the first manuscript I ever wrote. It was a historical fiction drama (if you consider the 1990’s as historical. Considering that it is now over 20 years ago I think it counts) about a fictional rap group’s rise to stardom and fall from grace, based on the idea of a supergroup featuring Nas, Method Man, Snoop Dogg and 2Pac (with Nia Long as their manager). This book actually got the attention of a major literary agent when I first wrote it. Problem was, I had submitted my first draft to them when they asked for the manuscript, and the writing was quite raw and unrefined. They rejected it because of that, and to this day I’m still kicking myself for the missed opportunity. I’ve tried to refine the story, but other issues with the characters, plot and setting appeared when I was doing that, and I lost interest in the massive amount of work I would have had to do to get things right. This one will probably stay in the vault.
–Needle of the Southside
This is the urban fantasy thriller I’ve been alluding to for so many posts. It is finished, it has been beta read, and I am quite proud of it. I am currently seeking an agent or publisher for it. I think the book has franchise material if the right publisher promotes it properly. More on that in the next entry.
-Jewels of the Eastside
This is my first follow-up book to Needle of the Southside. I saw the potential in Needle to tell multiple stories set in that world a la Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, and this was my first stab at a spinoff. I’ve got at least one great character I’m building the story around. But my content editor shot a bunch of holes in my first two chapters, so I’ve stopped working on the story to do a deep dive into developing the characters and world. I started even putting together a sourcebook for the world to reference for Jewels and future stories (hence my posts on worldbuilding and creating sourcebooks). Progress on this story has slowed to less than a crawl. But I haven’t given up on it yet.
–Return of the Tyrant
This is the other finished manuscript I’ve been telling you about. It started off many, many years ago as a JRPG video game treatment. I decided to make it first a comic book (once I realized how much it would take in time and effort to actually make the video game), but eventually it became a novel. I am very pleased with how it came out. So far I’ve only had one Beta Reader skim through it, so I’ll need some more eyes on it to make sure everything is consistent, but overall I think it’s ready to be submitted to agents or publishers. This is the first part of a planned trilogy.
–The Queen’s Betrayal
I’ve started writing book two of the saga started with Return of the Tyrant. I’m only halfway through chapter 2 as of this post, but I am really enjoying how the story is developing. I’ve got a ton of adventures in store for my protagonists, and a lot of new developments and revelations that will shake both them and their world to its core. I’m having a blast writing these guys. Other priorities have slowed down the process quite a bit, but I’m eager to dive back in when I can free up more time. By the way, the third and final pat of this series will be called “Extinction.”
–Kingdom in the Closet trilogy
this was to be a three-book prequel to Return of the Tyrant. I wanted to write a Narnia-type story about a normal family being sent to a high fantasy world and having to find their way home, except starring an African-American family. But while talking about my first few chapters of the first installment with my content editor, I got into a heated argument with her about it when she accused me of stealing ideas for book one from a book she was working on that I had critiqued for her earlier on. I still don’t agree, but for the sake of keeping the peace and not sacrificing my 30+ year friendship with the lady, I just shelved the whole thing. I’d like to revisit this story someday after Return of the Tyrant and its sequels see print.
-The Seizure 2
The Seizure was a b/w webcomic I produced many years ago, which has since been made into a graphic novel. I wanted to do a more robust follow-up story, so I started The Seizure 2 with a deeper storyline, more characters and color art. I managed to get the first five chapters done, along with a spinoff webcomic and some art for a tie-in deckbuilding game. I actually managed to write the full scripts for the final 5 chapters. But I fell out of love with the process of drawing, inking, coloring and lettering comics, and I was not happy with how the art for the previous chapters came out to begin with. Then, after Chapter 5 was posted, two things happened: Godmode got published, and I shifted all of my attention into promoting that book, and I did something very foolish which led to me getting to the ad account I depended on to make money off of the webcomic permanently disabled. So those things killed my motivation to finish the story at the time. I do want to finish the book someday, but there are a lot of obstacles to getting it done, reposted, and published as a graphic novel: i.e. the cost of printing a color graphic novel, setting up a brand new webcomic, deciding how to handle reposting the older material, etc. So this one is still in the pipeline, but it is not a high priority.
-Storm Pigeon
this was a three-part comic book I had an idea for back in college about a pigeon with a gun. I actually mananged to finish the first issue, do complete plots and thumbnails for the second issue, and write the script for the final issue. I really don’t know why I never got around to finishing the book. I think it had something to do with not being able to get the 11×17 bristol boards I needed to keep drawing. Or maybe I just got tired of drawing pigeons and guns. I don’t remember. Regardless, the unfinished second and third issues have been in a storage bin in my garage for the past 10 years. I’m scared to open that bin because I’m afraid everything in it will disintegrate as soon as it is exposed to air…or even worse, critters may have somehow gotten into the bin and destroyed all of the contents. it’s like Shroedinger’s cat. I don’t know either way if I will ever finish this one.
-Unbeatable Heroes
This is a short-lived webcomic strip I created a bunch of years back. I recently reposted literally everything I have created in relation to this strip on an official Facebook page for it. I had a number of new strips written and planned, but I never got around to drawing them. If the strips had generated enough interest, I would have kept it going…but they didn’t. I think this one is done.
So those are the most prominent ideas I’ve started on. Some are finished books that I’m still seeking publishers & agents for. Some are finished books that I’ve just accepted they aren’t good enough to ever see print and I don’t feel like rewriting. Some are ideas that encountered fatal story flaws as I was writing that I don’t feel like working that hard to fix. Some are stories I intend to finish, but have reached a critical issue in development that I haven’t quite figured out how to fix…yet. And others I actually do intend to go back and finish…but they’re at the bottom of my priority list under a bunch of new stories I want to tell.
So if you ever get frustrated at yourself for not finishing stories you started, don’t be. It happens to all of us.
