As mentioned on Wednesday, the Apartment Complex project (and by extension, the College Campus story, as they’re both in the same universe) have been put on the back burner. Not trunked, just put aside for now. I’ll get back to them sooner or later.
So, what’s the difference between trunking a project and putting it on hiatus? Well, for me, anyway, trunking is when I’ve all but made my peace with it and given up. It can be for any reason, really: loss of interest, failure to find any kind of strong plot, or growing dissatisfaction with the project overall. I’m okay with those outtakes doing little more than just taking up space on the bookshelf next to my desk. Every now and again I’ll think about them, but I won’t do any more writing on it.
But what about putting projects on the back burner? There’s many reasons for that as well. I don’t want to give up on them, not just yet. They still show promise, they just need a hell of a lot more work than I’ve given them. More often than not I put them on hiatus because I’m stuck. I did this with The Balance of Light, and I’ve done it with a few other projects as well. I need to distance myself from the project for a bit so I can get a clearer head. Maybe I’m diving far too deep into the project and I’ve lost direction.
Or worse, maybe it’s that I’ve got some really cool ideas for it, with a lot of nothing in between. That’s the main problem with the AC project.
How does one make this decision, whether to put it aside or to put it away?
I suppose it’s different for every writer. Personally, if every moment feels more like a chore and I’ve lost all excitement about it, chances are I should trunk it. I’ve trunked stories that at one time I really wanted to write, but the spark just isn’t there anymore.
On the other hand, if every moment feels like a chore but I still think the idea is worth working on, I’ll put it aside. I’ve found over the years that these projects fall into one of two columns: either A) I just don’t have the emotional and/or intellectual energy to dedicate to it, or B) The story is far from coherent in my head. The Balance of Light was in column A, while AC is in column B.
If I’m at either point, it’s best for me to back away and get my shit together.
Either way, it’s moved to the ‘Backburner’ subfolder on my PC. I’ll get back to it soon enough. Sometimes it’ll take a few months, sometimes it’ll take years.
But I’ll get back to them.
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