Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

I've actually tried a time or three, as I've always been good at developing story ideas, yet usually, they just don't pan out over time, as various issue develop the further I get into it. Yet my biggest problem, is not just imitating another Do-Over story, as there are so many, it's hard to take a fresh, original and unique approach on yet another one.

I'll likely double back on a couple, yet I'm not quite there (the right frame of mind) yet.

Also, since I tend to focus on 'novel-length' stories (60,000+ words) of twenty-something chapters, it's hard to write a decent Do-Over that isn't way past one to five million words.

Yep, say every million or so words. So a lot of my issues are focusing on a story that large, where you have to focus on the long term, and not resolving the story conflicts quickly, but leaving many of them hanging, more of less indefinitely. Thus it's more of a 'perspective' thing, as most Do-Over stories are typically a single day at a time, rather than 'episodic' stories, where you jump from on specific 'episode' to another.

Thus, I can build up to that, though it's a different venue entirely.

Yet my biggest problem, is not just imitating another Do-Over story, as there are so many, it's hard to take a fresh, original and unique approach on yet another one.

I'm not sure that's true. I do think the 'length' problem is a concern, though I feel fairly certain one could do a novel-length do-over that would work to some extent.

In terms of approaches, though, the genre is less limiting than people want to make it. Or, at least, I think it is. Reader expectations may be more of an issue; I know I confounded some readers by not adding any real 'making money' elements until halfway through Book 1. I think it makes my story stronger, but it's not where do-overs are 'supposed to go', maybe.

One can set a do-over anywhere, too. Fantasy? I can't think of any - might be some, though. As an example: Our hero falls fighting the great evil (or whatever), and winds up back in time before the fight. What do they do next? How do they reinvent history to allow 'the good guys' to win?

Ditto sci-fi. A human soldier dies in some battle during a war with aliens, then is suddenly their teenage self before the war even starts.

I'm doing 'personal reinvention,' but there are a million 'personal reinvention' stories. What if the do-over is only partial - one is 'back,' but in a different body, different family, etc?

It's a tool in the toolbox to create an interesting set of starting conditions and impart some useful skills and knowledge to the MC, but that's it. Heck, a do-over doesn't have to involve time-travel; Aroslav, amongst others, has done one where the MC is 'themself' at a young age, but reborn at the time they died, not in the past. It still counts as a do-over in my opinion, because the most important element is making different life choices when given the chance.

Your choice on that matter is sold, because, too often, the whole 'money-making aspect IS the whole story, especially in Mary Sue stories, which are primarily wish-fulfillment stories. Thus by skipping it entirely, and only tackling once the protagonist's life is already better, works in a more fluid, natural way (as opposed to a more awkward, forced approach, trying to leap-frog over most of the story development).

Then again, I've always HATED Do-Overs which feature a magical-genie space alien who grants wishes. Or the multiple Do-Overs, where the protagonist keeps making the same exact errors, EVERY SINGLE life, never figuring out what works and what doesn't.

So, not all Do-Overs are Done well, which makes those who take the most unusual route truly stand out. But again, in mind, I start two separate ones, which were a bit over-reaching, so it's not that the stories were bad, I just need to rework them a bit to get to work properly (a case of being over-ambitious).

The 'other' entry is a 2024 Valentine's Day contest entry posted on 14/02/2024.

Four days earlier, 10/02/2024, the author posted a story with a similar name, an identical wordcount and, from a brief glance through, exactly the same text.

The Valentine's day version is the author's lowest-scoring story, the earlier-published story is the author's highest scoring story.

AJ

In my defense :) I will say it's progressed quite a bit from Book 1, and also that I don't know where you left off. There are some serious curveballs at various points in Book 1 and I don't know if you were before or after any or all of them.

Also, my writing style (grammar, formatting, etc) has changed notably. I have a not-quite-done draft of Book 1 version 2 (which changes nearly no plot but a great deal of formatting and grammar) and, if you were to try it, the cleaned up version is better (but only available from me, for now, since it's not done).

That said: it's not for everyone, nor is any story, and it doesn't bother me if it's not someone's cup of tea. My point is more about there being points in Book 1 where things take turns that significantly change what's going on in that cup of tea.

Having to be completed is definitely a factor. I've been pretty open about wanting VoaT Book 6 to be complete within 2025, and part of the calendar-year focus is the awards. Minor, but I also don't like the idea of it taking more than a year to publish. That just feels like it's too long right now. But the award calendar is a factor.

Much of my motivation was simply to follow the characters, in terms of 'vast amounts of wealth,' but some of it was feeling like I needed to be a better writer to handle that than I was at the time. 'Money changes everything,' after all. Getting money might be wish fulfillment, but what you do with it is far more interesting.

'No genie' is also good. I can imagine do-overs with a more active explanation for 'why' and maybe some being to appeal to, but mostly that seems to derail things. Not always, but mostly.

I'd always heard that 'sex' changes everything, which I often quote in my stories, to indicate once a couple has had sex, they'll always either love or hate each other (esp. in regards to incest, where it TRULY changes everything, undermining the traditional familiar family relationships).