tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4045057682441280238.post430616013616670970..comments2024-02-24T08:17:41.032-08:00Comments on One Bite at a Time: We Had to Put the Ox DownDana Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01350344882342624735noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4045057682441280238.post-67609709542269802752012-03-13T17:47:33.479-07:002012-03-13T17:47:33.479-07:00Thanks, Mike. If i can come up with something clos...Thanks, Mike. If i can come up with something close to as good as GHOSTS OF HAVANA from this, I'll be delighted. I hope i can salvage much of it. There are a couple of characters I'd love to work with again, and a situation or two I'd love to develop. They're just not coming together now.Dana Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01350344882342624735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4045057682441280238.post-45177024373666905902012-03-13T12:05:53.477-07:002012-03-13T12:05:53.477-07:00Your time has most emphatically not been wasted, D...Your time has most emphatically not been wasted, Dana. I had the same experience 15 years ago. I sat down to write a novel, had a great idea, good characters, started writing. About 100 pages later, I knew I'd written myself into a corner from which there was no escape. I put it aside.<br /><br />Fast forward to 2 years ago. I'm writing another, completely different novel. Once again, I get 100 pages in and find myself bereft of ideas. Where do I turn? What do I do?<br /><br />Well, what I did was dredge up the 15-year-old novel and lift the basic idea from it. That idea was just what the recent novel needed to break through the roadblock. I grafted the two ideas together seamlessly and presto! THE GHOSTS OF HAVANA.<br /><br />You had to write those pages because you had the idea, but it wasn't yet fully-formed. The pages, or maybe the idea behind them, or maybe a character, or something, will shout at you some time in the future, saying, "Use me now! Put me in here! Do it!"<br /><br />As I titled one of my recent blog posts, goes to show, you never know.Mike Dennishttp://mikedennisnoir.comnoreply@blogger.com