Recycling + A Sort of Writing Update

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

I finally decided to write that post. The one that explains my writing mentions in a few of my posts.

I don't know about you, but I like to know what had happened to a writing project that had been briefly mentioned in one post or more posts. Especially the ones that suddenly don't get mention anymore (just disappear) and have been overtaken by other projects.

Okay, so the answer is that they are not being worked on anymore. But I still get confused by their fates. I wonder what had happened to them. I guess I am the sort of person who likes the explanations of why a writing project is never-mentioned-again-after-being-shared-and-it-has-gone-from-existence-from-the-writing-projects-page-without-a-word. But I also get it if it is uncomfortable to explain why a writing project has died and so I won't hold that against you at all. For me though, I knew that I had to explain what had happened to them. Cause otherwise I would be a hypocrite to get annoyed by others not explaining and then not doing it myself as I blog about my writing. It's just wrong on my part.

So what project I am talking about today? Well, I doubt that many of you know what it is. I only mentioned it twice and it was around in the writing projects in the first months of blogging. I believe it has been gone at least two months (not including this month). So if you don't what it is, that's fine. I will be talking about another current project here as well, so stick around for that. I think you want to know about it. 😉

What happened to the Cost of the Throne project?

Well, I will admit that when it was shared on the writing projects page, it was already a bit of a dead project. But I didn't want to let it go at the time. I was hoping to revive it. But it become more and more a dead weight in my creative mind and finally I let it go. And, boy, it was so relieving! I'm glad that I did but also sad to see it go.

What does this has to do with a new project?

I don't know if I am a rare species of writer with doing this, but I like to "recycle" my old ideas into new ideas. As in that I take old characters' names, maybe a bit of worldbuilding, and placed them in a whole new story. The plot would be different, the overall world would be different and the characters' personalities would be different. And very likely that order of importance would be different too. But part of the new story's foundation is on an old idea. 

I did that with my current Mind and Soul project. I had been thinking on this idea for a while now when I decided to let go the Cost of the Throne project. I think the reason I was able to let go was because I had the brilliant idea to reuse my character's names and the setting from my old story. And the transition went perfectly. It was like I found the missing pieces to this story's puzzle. It only strengthened the new story into something I deeply hope to write (and finish) one day.

(And yes, Taavetti is still the protagonist, which I believe is a first.)

Before you go and live your life, I want to list some pros and cons for recycling old ideas. As everyone needs to know what they are going into, right?

1. Con: Sometimes the old idea is too demanding to be part of a new idea. This means that the old idea is making you think of the old story too much and is clouding the growth of the new story. That is when you trash the idea and create a whole new idea.
2. Pro: It can add depth to your current story idea. It can just add that little extra layer to your world and your characters.
3. Con: It can stop you from moving on. Sometimes we really need to move on from old project for our growth. Realise when you need to leave every idea behind.
4. Pro: It helps with the growth of the story. I notice that when I add ideas, new and old, into a story it makes it that much more better and stronger as a book.

This is for now. Bye.

What is your opinion of explaining or not explaining dead writing projects? Your opinion of recycling ideas?