Need Advice: How Do I Deal With A Story That Exploded?

[Duleigh]

After taking a dozen years off, I'm planning to return to Lit with a Winter Holiday Contest entry. An idea popped in my head for an original twist on an old classic and I think I have something fun to read. The problem is that I fell in love with my characters and I sat down and started writing the back story because I truly love the characters and their story and I just don't want to let go. And then I started writing the Mother Of All Epilogues and it got kind of crazy from there.

Like I said, the story "exploded" in both directions. Right now, the original story can nestle in between the back story and the MOAE somewhere around "Chapter" 8 of a possible 13 chapters. Each "chapter" is running about 20K words or better just because I'm loving the writing again. That and I've never written romance, so I'm just digging it. I may use it for a resume if the Hallmark Channel goes for an adult offering.

Here's my question - how do I submit that one chapter for the Winter Holiday and place the rest on lit? Do I submit it separately with an instruction to ignore the epilogue if you want to read it as part of the whole story? Or would it be better to submit it as the holiday entry as it sits now, a standalone story, and also submit it as chapter 8 modified somewhat to fit more cleanly into the over all story arc (by deleting the epilogue and a few other things)

Your help and advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[lovecraft68]

Congrats on rediscovering the muse.

Contest rule is a story has to be complete to enter. So can chapter one or a couple of combined chapters be a standalone? If so enter it.

If not just start posting your chapters one at a time and do it as a series.

BTW I feel your pain in the explosion. I sit down and say "Okay, simple stroker coming up" then it turns into a back story, some conflict, hesitation then finally the damn scene. My strokers still hit 9k

 

[ElectricBlue]

Or would it be better to submit it as the holiday entry as it sits now, a standalone story, and also submit it as chapter 8 modified somewhat to fit more cleanly into the over all story arc (by deleting the epilogue and a few other things)

Your help and advice is greatly appreciated.

I would do this - which keeps it in the spirit of Contests which is for new, stand-alone stories.

If you then go and embed it as a chapter in a much longer novel length piece, it's going to be part of a separate work, separated by time in terms of publication, with most likely a different set of readers.

It happens all the time, where one episode expands into a larger story. Don't overthink it, just get on and write it. Just make sure the contest entry is stand-alone, and don't confuse readers with all of the intended stuff - that might never get written.

 

[KeithD]

Write a standalone of the slice of that story you want to enter in the contest and then submit the whole series separately. Make your standalone entry self-contained at a bit of a variant of what you include in the bigger work.

 

[PennameWombat]

After taking a dozen years off, I'm planning to return to Lit with a Winter Holiday Contest entry. An idea popped in my head for an original twist on an old classic and I think I have something fun to read. The problem is that I fell in love with my characters and I sat down and started writing the back story because I truly love the characters and their story and I just don't want to let go. And then I started writing the Mother Of All Epilogues and it got kind of crazy from there.

Congrats on the awakening of your muse.

Like I said, the story "exploded" in both directions. Right now, the original story can nestle in between the back story and the MOAE somewhere around "Chapter" 8 of a possible 13 chapters. Each "chapter" is running about 20K words or better just because I'm loving the writing again. That and I've never written romance, so I'm just digging it. I may use it for a resume if the Hallmark Channel goes for an adult offering.

Here's my question - how do I submit that one chapter for the Winter Holiday and place the rest on lit? Do I submit it separately with an instruction to ignore the epilogue if you want to read it as part of the whole story? Or would it be better to submit it as the holiday entry as it sits now, a standalone story, and also submit it as chapter 8 modified somewhat to fit more cleanly into the over all story arc (by deleting the epilogue and a few other things)

Your help and advice is greatly appreciated.

If you look at the stories in my sig, contest and event entries, you might think they're all totally stand-alone. They are and they aren't.

My 2020 Winter Holiday entry is a sort-of sequel to my 2019 entry, by both being in the same 'mermaid' universe. But they're separated in (plotline) time so they both function as stand-alone. The 2020 entry is the first part of a planned eventual trilogy but it needed to 'end' and while it leaves loose ends, the story for it is complete in there (well, IMHO.) Instead of an epilogue I made sure the ending makes sense for this story. The 'Christmas Miracle' is clear, while it's also clear that 'tomorrow stuff will happen in this world but that's not this story.' I've not received complaints about the ending (like I have for my Halloween 2019 entry where I ended it just before some hot sex was implied to happen and a couple others) and the ratings are good. So I seem to have managed it.

Many of the other contest/event entries are related, in that I have a primary universe, "Mel's Universe," and there are chaptered entries (so non Contest) that slowly roll out. But I use that Universe as the setting for stand-alone stories. Instead of inventing settings I use them, just have to describe sufficiently for each stand-alone.

This is probably closer to your situation. Don't bother with an epilogue when you post it, simply make the story a stand-alone which uses the characters and settings of your broader universe. Make sure it has an ending and leave it there. If you want other examples, look the various Expanse novellas. You might need to adapt it a bit, if you already know what your broader story will be, and adjust the 'surrounding' chapters to fit (since they aren't already posted, it's not like they're cast in stone.)

Note. I do use an Author's Note at the end to mention related stories. I don't consider those epilogues because they're one or two paragraphs and they simply provide references to my other stories and are clearly not part of the story.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Get me up to speed here. The contest ended a while ago, right?

I think we've talked about this before. How do you stick a story into a series with numbered chapters? Probably you can't and also use the numbering system you created before. The best you can do is indicate where the chapter would have gone and say, "This fits in between chapters 4 and 5." Most of the readers will be able to follow what you are doing.

I don't think the site has a way to add chapters with fractional numbers or decimals.

 

[AngstIgnored]

I have the same problem, in that I start off trying to write something short, and it ends up being many pages long before I even notice. Then I go back and try to figure out what to put on the chopping block. If you figure out how to control this, I'd really love to know how you manage it.

 

[Duleigh]

Get me up to speed here. The contest ended a while ago, right?

It's for the 2021 contest - there will be a 2021 contest, right?

 

[Rustyoznail]

It's for the 2021 contest - there will be a 2021 contest, right?

Yep - from the sticky

Winter Holidays
themes: winter holiday traditions (dreidels, gift giving, etc.), cold weather (snow), holiday mythology (Santa, elves), etc.
starts: November 11
closes: December 2
winners announced: December 9

 

[Duleigh]

I have the same problem, in that I start off trying to write something short, and it ends up being many pages long before I even notice. Then I go back and try to figure out what to put on the chopping block. If you figure out how to control this, I'd really love to know how you manage it.

What happened is that I wrote the story and it says exactly what I want it to say. I'm not quite sure what category to put it in because it CAN fit in several. There's a bit of clean-up to do and two scenes that I put in the "Waiting for the Muse" status, are till waiting for the keyboard actuator (me) to complete them, but all-in-all it's done. Then I realized that I fell in love with some of the characters, I wanted to explore their stories. Before I realized it, my original story is now chapter 9 of a fourteen chapter thing and I'm finding more and more excuses to branch off, it's like I don't want the story to end. When I finish a chapter I actually feel depressed that it's over so I'm going back in and re-editing a lot of work, just to keep it "alive."

I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I just love my characters, I love giving them their foibles and quirks and kinks, and I hate saying goodbye to them. The engineer in me keeps saying "Dude, this ain't War and Peace" and the writer in me keeps saying "Shut up, I'm having fun."

 

[CyranoJ]

Let yourself have fun. Don't overthink it. If the story works as a stand-alone, submit it. Let the chips fall where they may.

If it wins something, you'll get immediate affirmation from some quarters of the forums and immediate conspiracy theories from some others about the sorcerous formula you must have used to win (right, Lovecraft? ) but at the end of the day, the point is having fun with your writing. That's really just it.

 

[CyranoJ]

(That said: I 100% get being so fond of your characters that actual story writing with them stalls out. I've been there. I guess I'm a bit of an animist about this: if the story really wants to be written, it will compel you. If it's not time yet, it won't. Superstitious as this may sound, it really is the substance of fiction writing for me, personally.)

 

[HordHolm]

I'd say, first and foremost, screw the competition and write the story. You've lost your buzz for writing and got it back and that needs to be fed. I get that you want to enter the competition, but what I get even more strongly is that you have a story you need to tell. So tell it. Afterwards you can always rework an element to fit the competition, but the whole story should be your focus. IMHO of course; feel free to discard the above.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

That's exactly what happened with me with my series I call the Alexaverse. The original series no longer fits with the Canon I have since written and needs to be rejigged. It's driving me crazy, whether it had that effect on my readers or not.

My advice, did up earlier stories to match your current canon that your set on, and NEVER paint yourself into a corner. Edit an earlier chapter and submit it, kayak can replace it without affecting any scope.

I am VERY familiar with the problem.