Piece Work

Projectss unfinished, nothing new, but going back to Reality Fades - the story I started in childhood and developed the characters (in my head mostly) over the years. I have lots of pieces of the story written, with lots of rewrites, and I know how the story ends. I finally went to my old harddrives and CDs (the floppys had been at least copied onto CDs some years ago)and pulled everything together in one file.

Since the beginning of this month,I've been going over the different pieces, making bookmarks, comparing rewrites, and then I have mornings like this when it all looks like one big mess! I have different names for the same characters in different files. I have marked differences in character traits from my early years than the characters they became in my adult years. Yet I can't cut out their early years which play a big part. So what I have is piece work.

When I've attempted to work on this story in the past years I've come across the same roadblock, do I go in chronological order or do I provide flashbacks? I've attempted using flashback on certain pieces with the mindframe that I want this to be an adult story and I could start at the peak of the action - but honestly it is hard to explain everything without starting at the beginning. Also, when I think flashbacks, there is so much to tell, what do I share first. I know as I "share" my characters will be more revealed and it has to be artfully done so my characters are likable.

Also, with using flashbacks, where in the story will I start? There is a lot of action and once I anchor "current day" there will be a set of ministories that become flashbacks and a set of ministories that will bring the whole story forward, current, and to the conclusion; which, I actually have two possiblities. Once everything is in action I can let the characters lead me to the correct one.

Perhaps I will just start at the beginning, finish it and then decide if it works. Considering my writing hours are limited to just a few a week in total, this will take me forever, but it's my side project, and I'm writing this for me. I want to bring these characters to life on paper.

The duplicate names, I'm not so worried about because I always know which character I'm referring to and I can use "Find and replace" at any time once I decide. Character traits, I will have to fix old pieces so they make sense. My characters (at least the main ones) are pretty solid in my head, now I just need to get them solid on the paper, without taking them for granted. It's always difficult to read your own piece with foreign eyes.

So lots of pieces but thus far it's been kinda fun. My new escape if you will, in very small doses. And I look at the time and realize my writing time is almost up for today, so guess I better get back to it... but which piece? I'll go to the outlines (yeah, multiple) and randomly pick a piece to update and make fit.