Dollieh Sanctuary

Anyone else miss characters and their world after you've done a long bit of writing and you have to take a rest?

Just spent the better part of a month and almost 120 pages with these people and I hate to put them aside, I'm out of ideas for this draft. I wish it could go on longer but for the time there's nowhere else for them to go. They aren't doll-able characters either.

It's okay to take a break, or let their story skip some time. My subconscious sometimes needs to recharge to get to what happens next, or to work out a problem. On the other hand, 36k words is a respectable draft, and if their story wrapped up, then that's excellent. Let it sit for a while, come back for an edit, and decide what that story needs to do next (I.e. Get shopped for publication, posted in fic space, blogged, self-pub bed, personal enjoyment).

But yes, I do miss some characters. My brain often checks in on them at various stages of their development. Sometimes they're just getting on with getting on, and sometimes they're in the middle of something interesting.

I've had to take a break from characters I RPed since 2005. Between a couple of the places they were active at shutting down, involvement with charas RPed by other people who disappeared into the internet over the years, and various other things, their timeline is kind of a mess. I really want to straighten it out and clean up/clarify some things before going any further with them... but I definitely miss doing the stories and seeing what the characters would get into.

Luckily, I left them just after the end of a huge war and while they had a lot of rebuilding to do. So, even though I consider their universe mostly 'on pause' until I get back to it, I know they have a lot of non-story-worthy recovering to do before any more adventures are thrown their way. I guess that means we're all having a time-out! XD

I used to like writing my own 'fanfics' when I needed a break. Not really for writing or anything else, just to stay close to the characters and let them do things they couldn't in the story. Sometimes it was just in my head, sometimes I actually wrote them down, but it's still together time with the characters. I haven't written anything on a story I had been writing before I got married (7 years ago now) and ended up losing in a fatal computer crash. I still do things with the characters in my mind, just no writing.

*sigh* I should really write again....

Yes, in a way. The only one I really miss, is, well, my logon namesake, Kirah. She started out as the love interest for a series of short story fanfics I did in a life time far, far away. Her storyline took a dramatic turn when I dropped her into SWG and she ended up "falling in love" with Roho, the original character of the man who would one day become my husband. Since the painful demise of SWG, neither of us have been able to recreate the pair in another game. Although I have toyed around with the idea of dropping both of them into a completely unrelated world and rewriting their story.... But that would take effort....

I also created them in resin. Well, technically I only have Roho (Iplehouse Owen). I'm on my third MNF sculpt (Chloe SE) for Kirah and she needs to be modded and faceuped.

I want to go back and start the next draft right away while I'm feeling in to this story but I also know taking a rest between drafts and having a somewhat fresh approach is helpful too. Last time it made one of the characters a bit more sympathetic and gave me a few more clues to who he is. I have other stories and characters, this one just happened to bring a lot of fun memories and discoveries with it.

For rewriting, which this could count as, I took notes from the previous version and tidied them up before writing again. It gave me a vague map of landmarks I wanted to reach but no direct paths to get there. Being a draft any and all ideas were welcomed. I liked how I was just able to write and have it flow out.

I don't think I've really missed any of my original characters, but I did fall in hate with two of them I created for a never-finished NaNoWriMo story. I was ready to kill both of them so I lost interest in their story and quit writing. Sadly, I've the lost the original short story/outline that I originally envisioned many years before. Maybe that was why they took a wrong turn someplace.

DollyKim wrote:I want to go back and start the next draft right away while I'm feeling in to this story but I also know taking a rest between drafts and having a somewhat fresh approach is helpful too.

In a way, this is why I now try to think of my writing as 'theater'. Remember, your charas haven't really gone far... they're backstage, having donuts and changing costume, and probably need the break as much as you do!

I don't like taking rests from writing for too long because I'm afraid I'll forget things. This past year made it a little more difficult to write but I find the time. Well, I don't find it. I make it.

There IS an old story I'm not currently working on, but I have some art a friend drew of the characters so it serves as a nice reminder to one day finish their tale.