I think I develop back-story too much...

[Cheehwawa]

Hey folks, Im new to these forums. Go easy on me please

I have been developing back-story to this series I want to make since about 2001. It's evolved GREATLY since then (I was only 11, haha) to the point where the only thing it shares in common to the old "Story Bible" is some character names.

But its all the better, the original story seemed a little too like the Halo games/novels. Now what I currently have to work with is a rough timeline spanning from 258,000 BC to 7177 AD. I have 9 major story installments that I want to expand on in both the Andromeda and Milky Way Galaxies (either in novel or videogame form ), ranging from Sci Fi to Fantasy to novels written similar to the Iliad and Odyssey. All of this exists in my own created universe that I like to call "The Cheehwawaverse."

My only problem is this - I spend ALL of my time adding and tweaking elements in my story bible and literally no time actually sitting down and writing. Constantly great ideas come to mind and I have to write them down, it takes me like an hour to get to sleep now! My mind is always racing. I'm wondering if this is a common occurance and if anyone around here has this problem?

I think it's because I have so much different installments that are related, its tough to work on just one: gotta get that continuity just right!

I really want to get this story written, called Osiris. I spent about a year developing this installment alone, it will be a trilogy of epic-fantasy novels comparable in scope to the Iliad and Odyssey (I HOPE!) The story and the characters I have developed are, in my opinion, wonderful and I want to share them with the world and get published!

I even developed a little local website to try and organize my ideas - but just after I was almost done with my novel outline (52 chapters down and Osiris is only halfway through Hades! Sheesh) I got pulled into the "sequal" to the novel, set about 600 after Osiris in the future and spanning the Andromeda Galaxy.



If any of you have my problem - spending entirely too much time on developing back-story and not enough writing - how'd you end up sitting yourself down to just write?

Any help would be appreciated!

[Commonmind]

Sounds ambitious. Now write it already.

[ctg]

Don't worry about the chapter count, I had 96 chapters in my first one. Some of them are very short while others are far longer. What you now need to do is to open an empty page, writing a title (either prologue or first chapter) and start typing it out. Use your creativity to get actual piece out rather then putting it in notes. When you have finished, you can always go back to your notes and expand them.

[chopper]

break the task up - if you look at your magnum opus as it stands right now, you'll think it's completely unworkable, like climbing everest with butter on your soles. so, as the chaps above have suggested, just start writing. if you've got most of an outline plotted, you're actually doing better than i am. pick a chapter - it doesn't even have to be chapter 1, i started at the end.... - and flesh it out. now pick another chapter. rinse & repeat. in no time at all (well, six months for me so far) you'll have 30000 words or more.
when you have no more chapters to write, then the real tough work of editing beckons.....
but as i say, one step at a time.

s

[ushumgal]

I have *exactly* the same problem - I have literally hundreds of pages of notes about back story and the universe the stories are to be set in...but the stories never seem to actually get written. So I am probably not the best person to advise you!

When I *do* get writing done, it's usually because I have a good idea that seems to be developing itself in my head, and I jump on the computer and start typing it out. So when the bug bites, go with it! Otherwise, you have to make yourself sit down and write by force of will, and for me at least, that doesn't work nearly as well.

[JDP]

My tuppence worth would be to make sure that the novel you're currently working on has a solid plot. Don't get hung up the 'big picture' for the first draft - you can add/amend during subsequent drafts. Just make sure that you have a good tale to tell for that one book. For me, the biggest step was getting that first draft down in black and white.

[jeff.s.p]

You've fallen into a very common problem that plagues most writers/ artist etc.. which is getting sidetracked;
Spending time in an enjoyable workflow instead of focusing on necessary and often painstaking structure.

My advice is to make a list of only the essentials.. write down what "absolutely" needs to happen in order to tell your story
...and cut everything else!

Here's something I came across recently: ( I'm paraphrasing )

Cut anything and everything that doesn't advance the story, no matter how clever the dialog/ideas may be.
Cut anything and everything that you've ever read before.
Cut anything and everything that takes up more pages of writing than its actual value to the story.


This is something I myself need to be reminded of.

[Ursa major]

There is one major problem with developing a detailed plot: it takes no account of how your characters will behave. Stories, once populated by believable characters, have a habit of heading off at a tangent.

Fine, you say; I know what they're meant to be doing and I'll make them do it. The trouble with that approach is that is often becomes obvious to the reader and your characters, however rounded you try to make them, appear to be merely ciphers and your plot becomes imposed and not natural.

So now you have steeped yourself in your series worldview, get writing. Apart from anything else, you may be surprised (pleasantly) about what you write.

[Cheehwawa]

Thanks for the advice guys, I really appreciate it!
I think that today I will print out my outline for the first novel and go sit in my beautiful backyard and try to get some chapters done

[Ursa major]

Then Best of Luck with it, Cheehwawa! (And enjoy yourself.)

[Rosemary]

I've done exactly the same thing! Characters, maps, religion, fantasy - in fact I have about 10 years worth of research but can I find a story out of it?
No!

However, I am still seeking the start of my book - it has to be there somewhere. So it's perseverance for me!

[ctg]

Originally Posted by Cheehwawa

Thanks for the advice guys, I really appreciate it!
I think that today I will print out my outline for the first novel and go sit in my beautiful backyard and try to get some chapters done

Don't say chapters straight away, because nobody can do them, unless those chapters are ultra short. Just write what you can, and continue on the next day and day after that, and so on and so fort until it is done. You need to keep writing it till your face is blue and you have the whole she-bang on the screen. After that, it's a bit different ballgame. You either edit, or you rewrite the whole thing again and again and again ...

But please, don't feel that I'm trying to put you down, because I'm not. All what I try to say here comes from the bitter experience that I have gathered over the years I've been working on my own baby ... well bastard child.

[Malloriel]

I personally get to writing now and then, but with the interconnected circuitous nature of the world I've been building since . . . um I believe 2000 sounds right, and the way each story ties into the others in ways I find quite interesting, I don't feel entirely right putting down the stories without a bit more fleshing out to the world. I've gotten to developing some of the religions a bit more, and I'm taking a more in depth approach to the elements themselves, which play a VERY heavy role in every aspect of my world.

The Age of Legends, for lack of a better name as yet, bears heavy influence on "current" events and as an author, even if I never publish the stories from that age, knowing what went down then helps me colour what happens now, gives me a better understanding of the motivations of some of the characters in relation to others. Why large groups of people have the views they do. Rather than simply sitting down and stating "People don't like Darkness because it represents evil," which is what they believe, I say "Eons ago, before humans had become what they are today, back when they were still the children of nature, one of the Light tribes attacked without provokation an envoy of Dark tribesmen. When the tribe that sent the envoy discovered this, they sought vengeance. An eye for an eye, though as is common to the Dark, the eye taken may be more than just the eye, and may extend to that to which the eye is connected. They would never take more than was given them, but to the outside observer, what is taken may be more than what others would call even. The tribe of Light in question was slaughtered in the night. No survivors would be found, for within the Dark envoy had been children and pregnant woman as well. With no mercy shown them, no mercy was given in return. When the other Light tribes heard of this outrage, they flew into a frenzy. They spread the lies and rumours that the children of the Dark were evil beings, as twisted and malicious as their appearances would imply. That for no reason at all, they killed an entire affluent village, and with the support of other Light peoples, an ages long attack began until the Dark tribes became nothing more than a myth, the stories children are told at night by parents who wish to keep them in line."

That helps me in the tale of the Dark Scion, her journey to becoming the Scion and the views people impose on her around the reality of Darkness itself. And the development of each Scion plays a part on the overall story arch. 14 of them, each with their own tales for how they become Scions when they began as humans, notable or otherwise. I could quite easily say "Here's the Scion and here's what they're like", but I much more like the idea of experiencing their journeys for myself, seeing their changes, obvious and not, from human to Other, and with that understanding, I can better write them into the true story, the epic. I can also choose to take experiences from their developmental stages and work them into the arch, glimpses, vignettes. In this way I find that their personalities remain consistent and I know them so well that I barely even need to think about how they'll interact with each other.

It's a lot of work, but I like that. I like the challenge and the project and I'm in no hurry to finish any of it, not for lack of desire to see it through, but because I know that the finished product will be beautiful, and I don't want to sit back and sigh and wish I'd included so much more. I'm sure it's unavoidable to some degree, but really, if it's not necessary for me to pump it out, why not take my time to enjoy the journey, all of them. Back story, world building, legends, myths, etc. They add so much, whether directly included, or just a splash of brilliance in the background just to enhance the mood or to lend that extra impression of true depth.

So my advice is, if it's bothering you that you're not getting the writing done, then sit down and write. Find yourself a good spot and a good time, set the music if that helps, or go some place quiet and without distraction if that works better, and write in the form most comfortable (for actual writing I MUST use the lappy. Pens just don't move quickly enough and I can't insert edits. For sketching ideas as I have them, though, a mountain of note pads are a must, as well as comfortable pens that make my writing look nice.)

If you really don't feel that it's a pressing issue to get the writing out, I say don't worry about it. Develop as you see fit, write as you see fit, and generally take it easy. Make sure you're at a place where what you're writing is what you WANT to be writing, not what you feel you should be writing because you feel you SHOULD be writing. If your goal is to be published, as is mine as well, then being happy with your product goes a long, long way.

Do any of use believe Tolkien felt the need to write before the genealogical trees for the Hobbits had been completed? Or how about everything contained in the Silmarillion? History of Middle-Earth? That's a 12 book series alone of information he'd developed for himself that influenced the events of The Lord of the Rings. And what about the elven language? How much time did he invest making his world what he wanted it to be before writing? And before he even approached the story he wanted to write, he wrote enough information to fit 12 books, just of back story. 12 not including the Silmarillion.

There's always the ever mercurial market, and right now it is hot for fantasy, which is useful, but at the same time, I'd rather have a body of work I can forever be proud of be turned down due to a slow market than pump out a piece of mediocre drivle that the masses will eat up because that's what's selling right now.

I vote patiently enjoy what you're doing, because it will all come together in its own time, in your own time, and when it's supposed to.

[Lith]

If you feel it's time to start really writing, do so. Just plant your butt in chair and DO so. Accept that it won't be as good as that ideal in your brain, that you will screw it up, that it will stray from the plan, and give it a chance to really take on a life of its own.

A world, even an outline, is not a story, as you're finding. Worlds inhabit the three dimensions, but stories must also inhabit the fourth, time, and its a different skill which takes practice.

Set yourself a goal for the month, break it down into reasonable work times or amounts, and then DO it. You probably won't get the whole thing written in a month, but at least get it to a major shift in the plot. If you can't do it, then you probably aren't as interested in it as you thought.