I started going through all my document folders yesterday in search of a story I had written but never finished years ago that I thought would do well to get my attention for a while. I think it's a good novella or long short or whatever you want to call it. Well, in that process I stumbled upon all of my other unfinished works, and there are a lot of them. I think endings are extremely difficult for me for some reason; obviously that is the case. Does anyone else have such issues with endings? In any case I decided I'd list some of the stories here with titles and brief descriptions of what I remember them to be about. It's interesting to see all the different ideas I've come up with over the years! It's also interesting to see what stories I've yet to finish. I'm sure some of these will be finished and edited in the future (in particular: Soul For Sale, Artemis, and Europa Strain).Soul For Sale: This is actually a story I've finished, thankfully. It's one of my favorites that I'm working on getting published. Deals with a humanoid robot and his attempt to acquire the 'soul' of a doctor. "Soul" is basically a metaphor for someone's life. It's sort of a robots way to become more human and for other people to acquire prestige.
Artemis: Another that I've finished. It takes place in the distant future of Earth after a cataclysmic war forces humanity to make a haven out of space colonies. Artemis is a school colony for kids. Atlas, the main character, struggles to survive as her former friend turns on her and attempts to destroy her through manipulation and the like. It's a rather good story I think.
Europa Strain: This one is not yet finished unfortunately. I wrote it after reading about the missions planned for the moon Europa. This story is set in the relatively near future when research drones discover a super virus in the iced over oceans of Europa and a small crew of men become infected and have to find a cure before the virus infects everyone on Earth.
A Tear For Humanity: My first and only SF publication. It was published in a college literary journal and now that I look back I realize how weak it really is. The story is about a boy on his birthday who survives an alien attack in the L.A. area. One bomb, ten million dead.
Psychosis: A WW2 story about a man who loses his mind after being left behind in France. This is sort of a psychological horror/paranormal story. It's impossible to get published because it's not easy to sell...it's very dark.
They Call Him Benefactor: I don't remember where this story was going, but I opens in a giant gladiator style arena in the future...and the main character is pitted against big ugly aliens...
YA Something: The title of this is just what the document is titled. I never gave it a title, but it is the predecessor to WISB. This story also dealt with going to other worlds, only in this case it involved far too many main characters and too many HP references. I'll likely do something with it at some point in the future though--lots of editing to come.
Revival of the Ancients: My earliest attempt at a novel. It's far from being finished. I liked some of the story--mostly the plotline dealing with the character Arc and his wife Relena...and the old far Daval the dying wizard--but unfortunately there was far too much going on. This is why WISB has stuck exclusively thus far to one single viewpoint. There will likely be a break away later, but as of now I don't need it.
Down the Spiral: Fantasy at its very cliche-est. It needs editing and some nifty place to send it to really. Where the hell do you send slightly comical, yet unoriginal fantasy? That's why it's comical, because it takes elements from everything and makes sure to be cliche...the plot is a dwarf, an elf, a knight, and a wizard who go to find a magical scepter in a serpent's lair to save their kingdom...
Hate: In my Star Wars obsessed days I loved stories involving evil dictator types that could crush you head with a thought...so really that is all that this story is about and it isn't close to being one percent complete lol. Still, I love the name Lord Achirune...
Hello James: I don't write mainstream fiction very often. In fact, I'm relatively bored by mainstream. I just makes me sleep. This story is finished, just not edited. It's told through the eyes of a friend who copes with her best friends' attempts to commit suicide.
IDSTOR: Document title. I liked the idea of this one. What if you had to register to breed and had to meet a lot of requirements both mentally and physically? Now imagine you are a midget (or little person) who wants one...
New Story: Document title. A space pilot is abducted during an interstellar battle, but can't remember a thing. He finds himself forced to remember to provide information for mankind to better fight the alien threat. Think Fire in the Sky, only more forward...
Skylark: Another novel attempt. I loved the magic system in this. It revolved around hair, so naturally women were better magicians because they naturally grow hair faster. When you used magic, your hair burned away, so magic is sparing. But if you use magic and have no hair to burn, you die. Also had flying ships even though it's a very fantasy setting. Loved the idea.
If Vampires Could Be Depressed: Think about it. What if? They consume all sorts of blood, so what if they were capable of getting depression too? I wrote it as a sort of humorous story of vampires and how the epidemic of depression affects them. Humans deal with it far different, vampires see it as a plague.
Bean: Not to be confused with the name of the character from Ender's Game, nor when you add an 'er' is it to be confused with a slang term w are all aware of. No, this is yet another novel attempt with a magic system based in beans. Literally.
Comet Story: Document title. Not finished, but another novel I was working on. It had two plotlines going: one was dealing with a set of scientists doing some sort of experiment connected with the second, which dealt with a wanderer named Alan in a post apocalyptic world created by the crash of a comet.
Kiggles: One of my more experimental pieces. Around 500 words of rant from the eyes of a character trying to run a play where the cast are all trolls.
Broken: One of my favorite unfinished, err, novels/long short stories. Set in a distant, alternate world where psychic abilities act in place of magic, enormous manned bipedal robots called Robotic Defense Units defend the cities of man and elf alike, and evil men manipulate the weak with their mental powers.
So that is just a few. There are a dozen more of them of various lengths. I need to finish most of these :S.
Anyone have something they can dig up? I'm discovering all sorts of stuff in my archives lol!
Wow, that's a lot. I have several but I don't believe I have that many. One of them had to do with the ghost of Lizzie Borden--(Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks)--attacking a teenage girl who stumbles on her grave. Spooky, but I stopped writing it, because I figured Lizzie Borden's family might not appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's not all of them...I have a lot of others I'm not quite finished with :S
ReplyDelete>It's impossible to get published because it's not easy to sell
ReplyDeleteSounds like a challenge to me. ;)
I love the idea of Skylark! It's such an unusual way to limit power.
How long have you been writing for? I've been doing it for about ... three years (ish) now and I don't even have half the number of stories you do. I don't think I've had even half the number of ideas, even. Which is worrying ...
I've been writing seriously for about 5 years worth over the last 7 years. I started my first novel senior year of high school (Revival of the Ancients), but quickly abandoned it lol. I learned a few things about writing :P.
ReplyDeleteAs for Psychosis being a challenge. I've sent it to three different short story publishers and have received mostly the same reply. The writing is good, but the story is too dark. I've had it critiqued a couple times by editors, of which I am very happy. But Psychosis is dark from start to finish. It doesn't start happy, and it doesn't end happy. It's practically dark psychological horror from the get go.
Anywho, don't worry about how much you've written. I started out really slow, burst into a lot of different ideas, and then started going through phases of writing. I'm in a down phase right now. The only thing I'm really writing is WISB, and doing some editing work here and there. No new ideas currently. But that will end eventually and I'll write eight new stories in two weeks.
Just keep at it :)
I agree with Wow! You have a lot of great stories & they are all interesting. Hopefully you'll find endings and get published. Have you looked into it? I Googled a little and there are a lot of companies out there. I would guess you have a few in mind ... I can see you getting there and being a next Larry Niven or Robert Heinlien.
ReplyDeleteTake Care!
Opps, I realized you commented before I had a chance to publish mine :P Well, glad to hear you are trying on different stories. No doubt, it is about finding the right contact to get your novels out here. Hope you keep up the momentum :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words :). I'd be happy just nipping at the heels of Niven or Heinlein...both such great writers.
ReplyDeleteSoul For Sale and Artemis have gone out once each, and I need to do some more editing to both of them and see where I can send them. I also have sent a story called "Caution Says The Wind" that was rejected. I realize now that that story deals with a concept too large for a simple short story, so it'll likely be put aside until I can determine how to make it novel length.
But yeah, I am in the process of getting stuff ready for submission. Mostly I have to wait until this semester of community college is over since I work full time and go there full time. Sort of eats up my time. As soon as this semester ends you can bet I'll be submitting a lot more stuff. I've got some endings to write :S