Hello Rosy! I have around... 10 stories in my head, each pertaining to a different kingdom with different characters, but all in the same world at the same time. I remember someone asking you something similar (I think?) to which you've told the person to try to combine them into a single one. Thing is, I can't do that. Some of the characters I've had them in my head for so many years, they have their own identity. Some of the stories are already so fleshed out I simply can't merge them with +
+ another one. Some of them I've tried to write already. I guess I'm freaking out because we use to say that each author has a work of their lifetime. Or even if they don't, there's no author with 10 different stories in the same universe. HP is all one story. Cassandra Clare has 4 different stories in the same universe, Sarah J. Maas has 3 different stories in different worlds. I know mine are all in the same world & universe & some characters interact, but will I ever get to tell them all? +
+ I guess this ties in with a new fear I've found. Besides sometimes doubting the value of my stories and thinking they're worthless, sometimes I'm terrified of what if the first story I choose to tell is going to be my downfall. Anyways, I think I'm suffering from anticipation, as this all can be connected to a fear of simply writing. I wish I could just sit and write, without caring if I have 10 stories or 1 badly done. Thank you for your time and sorry for the lenght of this.
Relax. I think your problem is you just want to do it all now and because you can’t do it all now, you think you can’t do it at all. And that is just untrue.
It’s also untrue that no one tells multiple stories in the same world. Read any of the Pern books by Ann McCaffrey. Or Robin Hobb’s books. Or Mercedes Lackey. Shoot, even A Song of Ice and Fire, while it’s one series, is really the story of multiple main characters in multiple kingdoms. I have also seen historical romances do this too, not with different countries, but with different characters linked in the same world. There are lots of ways to tell our stories. I myself have a plan to tell the story of twelve different worlds in the same universe, based on the colonizers who destroyed the earth and then sent out ships to 12 different planets. Thirteen stories, actually. With the home planet as the center. You are psyching yourself out.
I would NOT tell you to combine all your stories. You have a different issue. Your issue is that you’re not telling ANY of the stories because you’re overwhelmed with the desire to tell them ALL.
So what you need to do is pick one and start writing it. And you need to commit to finishing it. You sit down and you write all the way to the end of that book. And then you go back and revise/edit it. All those other stories are still there, waiting for their turn, and when you finish the first, you can move on to the second. And the third, and so on.
If you need some structure, why don’t you use nanowrimo, and methodically go through each book. You can even do campnanowrimo. I personally take more than one nano to write a book. It might take two for a first draft. Or one nano and two camp nanos for drafts. No one has a gun to your head. You can write fast or write slow. There’s no one way to do it.
I started nano 14 years ago and now I’ve written over a million words, and have multiple finished novels, multiple novellas, as well as multiple first drafts. FINISHING is hard. You have to make your self keep going back to it until you finish.
Just get going. Get started. Make the commitment to your dream.
And that idea that you only have one story in you. Poppycock. I can’t stop writing. There are always new stories. Although it might take a while for a new one to come up. You are a WRITER. It’s what you do. It’s doing the writing that matters.
writing and art stuff collected on @rosy-writes
