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October 02, 2005
Unfinished Business
There's a meme going around right now in which writers list the first lines of their unfinished works (for example, see Charlie Stross' opening lines here).
I can't participate because I don't currently have any unfinished work. I don't tend to write bits of something and then let it lie around while I work on something else; I tend to work serially. Thus, having finished a book and not yet started another project, I've got nothin'. This makes wonder if I'm a freak (at least in the writing sense). The only time I have more than one book writing project going on is when I have a deadline slip. Not that that ever happens, of course.
Now, I do have opening lines from dead projects, which is to say projects that are unfinished because I've abandoned them for one reason or another. But I don't imagine that qualifies, since in a sense they are finished, because I don't intend to do any more with them.
Needless to say, I apologize to my fellow writers for failing them in this regard.
Posted by john at October 2, 2005 10:17 PM
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Comments
Devin L. Ganger | October 3, 2005 01:15 AM
The opening lines from my projects would a) be really damn boring but b) more importantly break NDAs. Most of my work is technical writing for work; I have a couple of freelance projects, but articles about Windows and Exchange just aren't sexy.
I tend to have one *type* of project going at a time -- one non-ficton book chapter, one magazine article, one fiction book or short story. I may have several ideas churning around at a time, but I tend to stick to outlines and other background materials until I finish the active project. There's one exception to that -- I wrote myself into a corner with Silicon Cats and I've only just figured out how to get out of it; in the meantime (three years), I've started work on my next novel.
Fazia Rizvi | October 3, 2005 09:46 PM
"Thus, having finished a book and not yet started another project, I've got nothin'. This makes wonder if I'm a freak (at least in the writing sense). [...] Now, I do have opening lines from dead projects, which is to say projects that are unfinished because I've abandoned them for one reason or another."
Nope, this doesn't make you a freak, just a kindred spirit to this particular needleworker. :-)
In craft circles, a work-in-progress is known as a "UFO" or "unfinished object". Most of the cross-stitchin', needlepointin', embroidery makin' women that I know seem to have a half-dozen UFOs going at one time. Me? I seem to always plow through one project at a time. If I have something unfinished it's because of the same reason you gave - I've abandonded it.
Charlie Stross | October 5, 2005 11:33 PM
I used to have zillions of opening lines/paras. Now, of the three I listed ... one's dead: I handed it in, finished, on Monday. One of the others is, well, it's the next novel, and it's sold, and I've only written the first 10% of it. Only one of those examples was a genuine Unfinished Story that stands some risk of staying that way.
It seems to me that pros have far fewer UFOs than hopeful amateurs.
Brian Greenberg | October 6, 2005 04:45 PM
OK, forgive me for asking the obvious question, but isn't this a great opportunity to show us the opening lines of The Ghost Brigades?
John Scalzi | October 6, 2005 08:42 PM
Nope. It's finished.
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Mari | October 3, 2005 12:40 AM
I don't think you have anything to apologize for. I'm not able to do this meme, either. I've often pondered having several writing projects going at once, but I don't think my brain could handle it.