I like to think of writing as collapsing a probability wave: until it's written, it's potentially many stories; only by actually writing it can you find out which one.
steve
This is true for me. I daydream constantly, and the stories always change. The only way I can pin them down is to write them which I absolutely hate doing. I write for me and for me only.
Whenever I get the urge to submit something to be actually published, it is torture. I rewrite and revise the story twenty times or more. Then, of course, when the editor gets the story, he or she normally asks for revisions as well.
I just counted up my stories. In over eight years of being in Blake's 7, I have done published and unpublished only three (or maybe four?) gen stories and 19 slash stories--a total of 22 stories. That's not much of a record for eight plus years. This year, my ninth year in B7 starting this March, will see my last things published and what isn't published in 2002 then is just for my pleasure. It's just too much work to get stories ready for the public, as far as I'm concerned.
And I think that 22 stories is also my limit. I have run out of things to say. And inspiration as well. I still adore Roj Blake, but I am not as obsessed with him as I once was.
BUT I will still continue to daydream. And I think I will be enjoying these daydreams much more because I won't be thinking about them as anything but my own personal enjoyment. In other words, I won't have to worry about plot holes the size of Jupiter. Nor will I have to justify why characters act the way they do. I like daydreaming stories a lot more than trying to write them down.
Joyce