Aborted Stories
I thought this would be an interesting post especially for my writing friends. How many of you have aborted stories? Stories that never got off the ground, even though you gave it a lot of thought and maybe even wrote a few lines for it? I'm mostly talking about short stories since novels are a completely different animal.
I'll list three of them here.
Premise 1.
Jesus knocks on a young carpenter's door and becomes a roommate and teaches the guy how to build things old school. Nothing about religion is mentioned just some wacky hi jinks ensues.
Why it was Never Written
Had no idea how to end it. I had a vague notion of maybe Moses coming in to hang out after Jesus left but that is just a bad punchline and not a real ending. I suppose if and ending ever comes to me I'll give it a whirl but for now it is filed under never left the drawing board.
Premise 2.
Man does some gardening for his wife and finds part of a black glass-like rock buried in his backyard. He keeps digging and digging but it turns out to be bigger and bigger. Greed makes him think the rock will be worth money at first but after a while he realizes that contact with the rock gives him the power of suggestion to other people like his bossy wife and mean bratty daughter. As he digs more of the rock out he goes crazy with power and eventually kills himself when the rock is finally dug out.
Why it was Never Written
Come on. Guy finds a magic rock and the power of the rock corrupts him? How cliche is that? The only part about the story that I liked was the last line I would have written, something like "when he finally dug it out it crushed his leg and it trapped him against the side of the hole. It was quite large, and the exact size of his coffin."
... yeah even that line sounds kind of cheesy now that I think about it. Yeah that one gets filed in the round cabinet.
Premise 3.
As a prequel to my novel Uriel, the Angel of Assassination, has to convince a creature of chaos to swallow up a scared little man named Jonah.
Why it was Never Written
The idea came to me after I finished the novel and I was totally angel-ed out by then. Also Uriel is such a dick back then that I would have trouble writing the story. He is definitely a do it or I'll just kill you kind of a being back then. Also I couldn't think of a satisfying end to it. If one ever comes to me I might still give it a whirl but I would much rather go into Uriel's head after he merged with Jason.
Okay that's it for now. I wonder if any of you would be willing to share your aborted stories? I'm interested and I'm sure a lot of other writers would be too.
I'll list three of them here.
Premise 1.
Jesus knocks on a young carpenter's door and becomes a roommate and teaches the guy how to build things old school. Nothing about religion is mentioned just some wacky hi jinks ensues.
Why it was Never Written
Had no idea how to end it. I had a vague notion of maybe Moses coming in to hang out after Jesus left but that is just a bad punchline and not a real ending. I suppose if and ending ever comes to me I'll give it a whirl but for now it is filed under never left the drawing board.
Premise 2.
Man does some gardening for his wife and finds part of a black glass-like rock buried in his backyard. He keeps digging and digging but it turns out to be bigger and bigger. Greed makes him think the rock will be worth money at first but after a while he realizes that contact with the rock gives him the power of suggestion to other people like his bossy wife and mean bratty daughter. As he digs more of the rock out he goes crazy with power and eventually kills himself when the rock is finally dug out.
Why it was Never Written
Come on. Guy finds a magic rock and the power of the rock corrupts him? How cliche is that? The only part about the story that I liked was the last line I would have written, something like "when he finally dug it out it crushed his leg and it trapped him against the side of the hole. It was quite large, and the exact size of his coffin."
... yeah even that line sounds kind of cheesy now that I think about it. Yeah that one gets filed in the round cabinet.
Premise 3.
As a prequel to my novel Uriel, the Angel of Assassination, has to convince a creature of chaos to swallow up a scared little man named Jonah.
Why it was Never Written
The idea came to me after I finished the novel and I was totally angel-ed out by then. Also Uriel is such a dick back then that I would have trouble writing the story. He is definitely a do it or I'll just kill you kind of a being back then. Also I couldn't think of a satisfying end to it. If one ever comes to me I might still give it a whirl but I would much rather go into Uriel's head after he merged with Jason.
Okay that's it for now. I wonder if any of you would be willing to share your aborted stories? I'm interested and I'm sure a lot of other writers would be too.
posted by Chun @ 3:29 PM
2 Comments:
At 3:31 PM,
Mollynonymous said…
I'm not a writer, but here's a story idea I've toyed with and not done anything with:
A young man's wife dies very suddenly, and as a result he begins spending more and more time with his mother-in-law as they deal with their grief. They have an affair. My problem is on how the affair ends (I have a very good grasp of how it begins). The ending is pretty much the point of the story, which is why it's not worth pursuing until I figure it out.
At 11:14 AM,
Chun said…
The obvious answer would have to be zombies break into the house and start eating people.
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