Has Anyone Done This Before?

[Ky_GirlatHeart 1,979]

Have you ever written a whole bunch of chapters for a story before the Lord gives you another idea and you have to rewrite everything? And all you can say is, "Lord, why right now when I'm halfway into the story?!"

[Wes B 947]

It can be frustrating. This doesn't just happen to writers; it's common to every creative activity: even those not exactly artistic. I finished up a full career as an engineer & programmer, where as a team of people we'd continually create new things. We'd always start with a flurry of ideas, and pick the best (peacefully when we could, not-so-peacefully, when we had to...) We'd later come up with new ideas, sometimes when it was too late in the schedule to include them. Most heartbreaking were those occasionally amazing ideas we had to abandon from the start, because they didn't fit our time or budget.

 

So you're in great company. Unless you're working to a deadline though, a writer has far more freedom than most people. For you, these new ideas will really be more a gift than a hindrance. Embrace them.

[suspensewriter 5,708]

No, I can honestly say that has never happened to me, but don't you worry about it--it will work out okay in the end.

[Zee 2,317]

I would say that my gift of writing is more general, rather than specific, as yours seems to be...

 

But that’s certainly happened to me in life. 

[Ky_GirlatHeart 1,979]

@Zee Wait, there's a difference in writing?!

[paulchernoch 553]

I wrote a really cool chapter and my beta reader said, "No!" I valued her input and deleted it.

[Zee 2,317]

33 minutes ago, Ky_GirlatHeart said:

@Zee Wait, there's a difference in writing?!

 

What I mean is, God gave me a talent for writing in general, but I don’t necessarily feel that I’m given specific story ideas or themes, if that makes sense.

[Sarah Daffy 4,955]

4 hours ago, Ky_GirlatHeart said:

Have you ever written a whole bunch of chapters for a story before the Lord gives you another idea and you have to rewrite everything? And all you can say is, "Lord, why right now when I'm halfway into the story?!"

Not quite sure what you mean here. Another story idea? Plot twist? Seems to me you could just tweak the plot and add it in or save it for a later book. I generally plan everything out before hand and add in extra little specifics as I go along if necessary.

[Ky_GirlatHeart 1,979]

@Sarah Daffy Yeah, but I felt like starting from scratch would be better. It changes the tide of the whole story now. I still have the original though, just in case I needed ideas from that.

[Ky_GirlatHeart 1,979]

@Zee Half yes, half no to understanding that..

[Paul but not THE 263]

Store up all those false starts and tap on 'em later as a story needs that line.

 

[Paul but not THE 263]

17 hours ago, Paul but not THE said:

Store up all those false starts and tap on 'em later as a story needs that line.

 

...in fact, I've got a file/new-project? called "Donowutt County Vignettes" where I keep those short snippets and false starts.

[Johne 2,134]

On 2/26/2021 at 11:52 AM, Ky_GirlatHeart said:

Have you ever written a whole bunch of chapters for a story before the Lord gives you another idea and you have to rewrite everything?

 

I don't think the Lord gives me my ideas for the most part any more than I think a Christian carpenter gets his wood from the Lord. Wood comes from a forest and ideas come from observing and thinking in my opinion. On their own, wood is wood and ideas are ideas.

That's not to say I don't think the Lord has no role. I think the Lord blesses me with the capacity to think and to reason and to observe and to worship (or rebel) and I give God credit for these many blessings. But I kind of resist the idea of hyper-spiritualizing the idea that I was called to be a writer or that my every idea comes from the Lord. I think I was given gifts and talents which do include the ability to think and put words on a page to tell a story for an audience, which I think looks very similar to a calling but is distinct. I think I was called to love God, love my neighbor, make disciples, to work and invent and do justice with the things I've been given.

I get ideas from a wide variety places which could indeed include being from the Lord. Most of my ideas come from watching, listening, considering, all things made possible by being created in the image of God, for which I thank God for often. However, I think ideas themselves mostly occur in the confines of my head as an exercise of the body He's given me and the skills and effort I provide, and I don't want to self-aggrandize. It is a pleasure and an honor to write, to be a writer, but what I do is no greater than what a carpenter does. 

[Ky_GirlatHeart 1,979]

@Johne Good point. Thanks for that view!

[Nicola 1,759]

A writer is never really finished. No such thing as a final draft. Just putting a story out there means every person who reads it puts their ideas into it to realise it for themselves. 

Seize the rewrite! Be on the cutting edge of discovery and exploration! Love and nurture the new idea!

[Shamrock 1,881]

I have learnt to accept that when I am stuck with my writing I must be patient and wait for God to reveal how to unblock it and move forward. This seems to be happening at lot at the moment as I try to plot my WIP and it usually occurs when I do not have a pent or paper or my pc near. i.e walking the dog, halfway through another chore.  I general find that if the idea has legs it will stay with me until I can scribble it down. Those that disappear probably would not have worked anyway.

[Ragamuffin_John 594]

I haven't written a single chapter, but for my blog posts I have deleted a few in-progress that I thought would resonate but were too ahead of my experience curve.   I'm not saying one has to have experienced or intellectually understood everything one imagines, but for these writings, I just felt too presumptuous, like I needed to toss the work permanently to wash away a paradigm and wait for the intuitive impulse to arrive at a different angle.   Strangely, too easy-flowing a write can sometimes give me the sensation that "I have arrived", and I don't necessarily trust or want that.  I also begin to wonder, "Could the reader sniff that out?"  Kind of like I trust peace in the midst of the storm more.    Am I making sense?

Edited March 1 by Ragamuffin_John

[MartinM 8]

If the Lord gave you the first idea, don’t scrap it, just move on and work on both or the second and come back to the first later. I personally have 5 wips (work in progress) right now. 

[Johne 2,134]

13 hours ago, MartinM said:

If the Lord gave you the first idea

 

Same for if the idea was freely-occurring.

I want to glorify the Lord with the ideas I have. Some are low-hanging fruit and ready for the picking, and some need to ripen a little.

[Joshua Benefiel 177]

It happens to me generally every time I start to write a sermon.

 

But not with re-writes to fiction works; new ideas just get added to the ever-growing pile of new ideas that I eventually want to work on.