Acktion
GrumpyOldDude
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2011
- Posts
- 4,429
Since Tolkien, people afflicted with the muse seem to be taken with the idea of series. Sometimes, the series ends with the audience going "wait! what else?!" and others we find the desiccated almost corpse of what was once a vigorous young story being kept alive by life support in a persistent vegetative state. (Mommy, what's that bump under Grampa's sheet?)
Which begs the question, just when is it better to let a series die with dignity?
Unfortunately, this question did not, like so many others, come to me in my housebound medicated haze on a whimsy. No indeed. As an outlet for my own increasing boredom, and in an attempt to rail back against the dark shadows of injury and illness that seem bent on stealing me from me, I began to write and then (oh, the shame!) to submit.
To compound my sin, I too fell victim to the siren call of "The Series". Not once, but over and over.
Either fortunately or unfortunately, my illness does not always let me write. Too often I have sat at the keyboard with the images in my mind and every keystroke feels like a needle jammed into my fingertips to run low voltage electrical current up my arms. Eventually, I end up closing the document and lying down until the muscle spasms and pain pass.
Other times, I do actually manage to write and rather than suffer the stones and rotten vegetables of misfortune choose to save the document rather than submit it. And when I rise to read over it once more, find myself thinking "Yup, need to dial back the meds."
And so, I find myself with no less than three intended series with my inbox peppered with requests for more, outlines of where the story is intended to go, and yet days then weeks and then months will go by without managing a follow up worthy of submission. (Leave my trash file with two to three thousand scraps that even Laurel hasn't seen out of this!)
I can't help but feel SOME requirement to continue to at least attempt a follow up when several people have contacted me more than once wondering when the next will go up. And it isn't as if watching the paint on the walls flake or checking the inside of my eyelids for cracks is more time sensitive.
And yet, in the back of my mind is this little voice whispering "meh, they were just REALLY horny. It wasn't all that with a side of fries. And even if it was, you'll never be that good again anyway. And hey! Didja see the hooters on that nurse when she was taking your blood pressure? You could hide a ton of stuff in that cleavage! Too bad your pressure wasn't higher so she woulda kept pumping longer."
And so I find myself slamming shut Taming Jet Ch.03 v 2085 with disgust and wondering. Should I just admit that I have typing dysfunction and premature submission? Should I even bother taking another look at "Exodus" after all this time? Should I take another stab at "Dreamwalkers; The Awakening"? Or should I just take a nap and see if there are cookies when I wake up?
When do you just let a series fade quietly to silence?
Which begs the question, just when is it better to let a series die with dignity?
Unfortunately, this question did not, like so many others, come to me in my housebound medicated haze on a whimsy. No indeed. As an outlet for my own increasing boredom, and in an attempt to rail back against the dark shadows of injury and illness that seem bent on stealing me from me, I began to write and then (oh, the shame!) to submit.
To compound my sin, I too fell victim to the siren call of "The Series". Not once, but over and over.
Either fortunately or unfortunately, my illness does not always let me write. Too often I have sat at the keyboard with the images in my mind and every keystroke feels like a needle jammed into my fingertips to run low voltage electrical current up my arms. Eventually, I end up closing the document and lying down until the muscle spasms and pain pass.
Other times, I do actually manage to write and rather than suffer the stones and rotten vegetables of misfortune choose to save the document rather than submit it. And when I rise to read over it once more, find myself thinking "Yup, need to dial back the meds."
And so, I find myself with no less than three intended series with my inbox peppered with requests for more, outlines of where the story is intended to go, and yet days then weeks and then months will go by without managing a follow up worthy of submission. (Leave my trash file with two to three thousand scraps that even Laurel hasn't seen out of this!)
I can't help but feel SOME requirement to continue to at least attempt a follow up when several people have contacted me more than once wondering when the next will go up. And it isn't as if watching the paint on the walls flake or checking the inside of my eyelids for cracks is more time sensitive.
And yet, in the back of my mind is this little voice whispering "meh, they were just REALLY horny. It wasn't all that with a side of fries. And even if it was, you'll never be that good again anyway. And hey! Didja see the hooters on that nurse when she was taking your blood pressure? You could hide a ton of stuff in that cleavage! Too bad your pressure wasn't higher so she woulda kept pumping longer."
And so I find myself slamming shut Taming Jet Ch.03 v 2085 with disgust and wondering. Should I just admit that I have typing dysfunction and premature submission? Should I even bother taking another look at "Exodus" after all this time? Should I take another stab at "Dreamwalkers; The Awakening"? Or should I just take a nap and see if there are cookies when I wake up?
When do you just let a series fade quietly to silence?
