I've been getting a few messages asking what's happening since I thought it was going so well a year ago. Two things conspired to sidetrack it.
First, time: it went away. I started a new job shortly after my last update and I've been very involved with it, which has combined with some home life issues to seriously limit the time I can spend on my writing. It's worse than that, though, as I've never been able to keep the flow of my writing unless I'm doing it in sizable chunks.
Second, inspiration: I'm not sure I like where I had the story going. It was starting to feel too pat and condensed but I haven't come up with a way to draw it out effectively. OTOH it may just be my memory of it so I'm going to go back and reread what I have written and see if I like it any better now.
Passed 18,000 words. More importantly, got past one of my main sticking points with how to achieve Jeff and Trish's goals of trying to change the future. Not sure yet if it will have any effect but if it does the actual changes will show over time, not right away. I'm fairly certain that at least one portion of the story will elicit a host of negative commentary as there are some political views expressed (not necessarlly my own) that will piss some people off. Oh well.
Mostly, though, I'm trying to stick with a readers advice and making it a story about the people rather than the events of the time.
Passed 9,000 words and things are still flowing. Time may be an issue after the holidays but I'm working on that.
The problem is that things are packing in - those 9,000 words are all about a roughly 2 1/2 month period after graduating from high school and there's a lot happening there. I like the ideas but I may have to try to spread them out over time. We'll see. Such are the perils of letting the characters write the story.
Got a feedback message this morning and it acted as a swift kick in the ass. I've been trying fairly hard to write, not so much on the continuation of Building a Better Past - the plot there has had me stuck - but on some other projects. It hasn't worked.
This feedback for Building a Better Past basically cleared up in my own mind where that story should be going and finally some words are starting to flow. No idea if they'll keep it up but in the last four hours I've written 2,000 more words than I've managed to string together in the last year so I have some hope.
I'm shocked that my two stories have gotten that many downloads. Not displeased, just shocked. What I find odd is that Building a Better Past has more than 58,000 downloads but that some stories that I feel are better have so few.
I wonder why stories from Janna Leonard, WTSMan and Girl Friday don't get as many views? Folks, they write great stories! Check them out. Not to mention Celtic Cowboy's The Hummingbird - I like his other stories but there's something special with that one.
For those who ocaissionally ask, I'm still trying to work out some kinks in a continuation story line for Building a Better Past but I haven't figured out the next step yet.