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FFC #54 - Vampires, Update 2

Posted June 12th, 2020 at 01:53 PM by TGRF
TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #54

So for those among you who avidly follow my signature, you might have noticed that the vampire tale, now tentatively titled Blood, is paused. Mentions of a 'character deviant' are made.

Deviants are what I call things which find their way into the development/story, but don't actually belong there. Like if I have an idea in my head about how a story can play out, but that idea really has nothing to do with how the story should play out, that idea is a deviant. I have to watch out for those things, because the further they get woven into the development/story, the bigger the chance I'll have to start completely over.

Well that's exactly what has happened: the basic idea for this vampire story has been floating around so long that it's accumulated a ton of ideas on exactly how it could play out. Some of those ideas stuck through the development, and unfortunately, they not only have nothing to do with the story, but actively make the main character's motivations illogical.

To fix this issue I would have to recreate and redevelop the main character, as well as possibly two side characters. The entire front end of the story would have to be scrapped and redeveloped completely (which is a shame since I finally wrote a first chapter I liked). Parts of the rest of the story, probably comprising roughly half of the outline, would have to be tweaked carefully at best, or scrapped and completely reworked at worst.

On the bright side, I finally know why I kept having misgivings about the main character.

Redoing a story I've spent about a month thinking off and on about isn't something I particularly look forward to. The longer I spend on one story the more I begin thinking about other stories I could tell. This is how I usually come up with sequels. A few days ago I was visited by an idea about how to write a sequel to HiS which might actually work (no promises). Point is, my interest is virtually anywhere but the story with a problem.

Right now I cannot say what I will do. In all likelihood I will set about redoing Blood. But there's a chance I might look closer at an HiS sequel (another one of those things which I keep coming back to). I might even return to my personal challenge thread (the shadow of an idea for TBR/Outcast came to me).

I will keep you updated on what happens.

~TGRF, who could really use a writing group to keep him moving with these things.
Posted in FFC
Comments 5
Total Comments 5

Comments

Old
TheAverageFan's Avatar
It's certainly a weakness we share of our imaginations wandering toward other stories when we're supposed to be working on just one

Writing group, you say?

~TAF
Posted June 12th, 2020 at 05:47 PM by TheAverageFan TheAverageFan is offline
Old
TGRF's Avatar
Since I wrote that, Blood has continued to go downhill. I'm unsure if the main character is fixable at this point. Meanwhile, interest in an HiS sequel is surging...

~TGRF, who must remind all viewers that interest can change daily.
Posted June 13th, 2020 at 02:07 AM by TGRF TGRF is offline
Old
TheAverageFan's Avatar
What could possibly be so wrong with the main character as to sink the entire story and leave them unsalvageable?

~TAF
Posted June 13th, 2020 at 02:48 AM by TheAverageFan TheAverageFan is offline
Old
TGRF's Avatar
@TheAverageFan The deviant is the character's drive. With the deviant in, his actions make no sense and the ending (and by extension the entire story) is illogical. (The drive itself is also not very logical.)

Unfortunately, the story was crafted around the deviant drive, meaning that if I use the drive I should have been using, the current story no longer forces the character into doing what I need him to. He has many ways to just walk away, as it were.

I can technically still use the old story, but it would require several plot hole patches to make it work, and I feel like those patches would be obvious for what they are.

I will likely return to the story at some point, or possibly start with one of the sequels I had in mind. But I will most likely have to start from scratch when I do.

Right now I'm letting my interest in HiS run rampant and waiting to see what happens. If it burns itself out, I'll return to the vampires. If not... well then you'll probably see an HiS sequel at some point.

~TGRF.

P.S. I can PM you what's going on, if you want, but I'm hesitant to do so since you are currently 50% of my known readers.
Posted June 13th, 2020 at 12:17 PM by TGRF TGRF is offline
Old
TheAverageFan's Avatar
Well you could have plenty of chances of turning back and just have the character not if they are an active protagonist. Still you certainly don’t want an illogical character choice be what closes the story. That can infuriate the reader.

Also I’m hardly 50% of yer reader base. There’s tons and tons of silent readers. They just don’t provide very quality feedback

~TAF
Posted June 13th, 2020 at 07:01 PM by TheAverageFan TheAverageFan is offline
 
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