Before You Give up on a Story
Writers generally love the stories we’re writing…otherwise we wouldn’t write them. But sometimes it seems like we’re the only ones who feel that way. It’s hard to get rejection after rejection on a short story, and at some point, we may begin to think of hiding the story at the bottom of our metaphorical trunk.
However, a flood of rejections doesn’t mean you have to let go of a story altogether. You could give that original story idea new life, even if its first incarnation didn’t work out. So here are three things to do before you give up on a story, from least to most drastic.
Change the word count.
I also wrote about this in an article for SFWA. You may find a longer or shorter treatment of your story gives it new life. You could take one scene and make it the whole story, or expand the piece by delving into backstory or the inner workings of a character’s mind.
So maybe your story about a long, creepy flight to Jupiter could be cut to just the scene where the main character finally encounters the ghost the’ve been chasing around. Or, to make the story longer, you could add a whole new angle where you examine what led to your ghost’s untimely demise or how she got stuck on this ship.
Change the Who, When, and Where.
Your story may also benefit from a change of perspective.
Who: What would your Jupiter story look like if the ghost were the narrator? Or if there was a third character on the ship? Or if your main character was someone the ghost had known in life?
When: You could try setting your story before the ship even leaves for Jupiter: what does the ghost do during preparations? Or set it after the ship completes its journey, and your character is dealing with the aftermath.
Where: What if your story was set on Jupiter, where characters must deal with the docking of a haunted ship? Or on another ship that encounters the ship along the way, or another planet where the ship might get stranded?
Write a whole AU.
AU stands for “alternate universe.” Fanfic writers are very familiar with this idea: taking the source material and changing everything about it, except the stuff you love most.
So take your haunting off a spaceship and put it in a submarine, school, cafe, or eerie stretch of road. Change your main character from a ship captain to a waitress in a creepy town, an actress in a spooky play, or a maid in a haunted house.
You can even change genre. Write a college AU where your human and ghost (who may or may not be a ghost in this version) are roommates or rivals. Maybe they’re co-workers in an office, or old ladies in a retirement home. Add romance. Get rid of romance. Make them ballerinas with superpowers. Your imagination is the only limit.
Speaking of AUs, read about scrubbing your favorite fanfic couple into original characters.
The point of all these potential changes is to light a new literary fire in you. Maybe you’re excited to turn your original idea into a single 500-word scene or a 40,000-word novella. Maybe you find the ballerinas with superpowers idea really inspirational.
Of course, there’s no guarantee the new version of your story will sell any better than the last. But it does feel good to breathe new life into a project, to give another chance to that spark that made you write it in the first place.
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