The Infamous War Novel

[jon_chaisson]

So last night, while IMing with emmalyon, I was watching Red Dawn on SpikeTV. I haven't seen that movie in a good few years, so it was kind of fun to watch it again. Like I said in the previous post, it brought back a lot of memories of writing the Infamous War Novel. So much so that I pulled the mammoth 3-ring binder out and started looking through all the notes, outlines, and whatnot that I'd accumulated over the years. I think the last time I actually worked on that thing was some time around 1996 when I was working at the radio station, as I was transcribing it onto MSWord. But the last time I actually worked on it, I mean actual writing, plotting, and worldbuilding with the original story idea intact, had to be some time in 1992 when I was living with L. (see my Radio Radio posts), and even then it was morphing into something different.

When I looked through the notes and stuff last night (I didn't actually sit down and read any of it yet), I found a lot of interesting things I'd forgotten about: the fact that I would sometimes just sit down and listen to specific songs or albums and try to pull a scene idea out of it (this was my "music video treatment" way of writing the story)...a 12 "issue" story chart that I believe was my way of retooling the story idea in 1991/2 when I was heavily influenced by Cerebus at the time...a jumbled mess of various notes from 1987/88 when I worked at the YMCA, when I would sit down on the steps down in the locker rooms and write (talk about choosing odd places to write!!)...a few chronologies of when I'd started the story and its various mutations...

This is a 5" thick binder, mind you, and it's FILLED with stuff. The original written version, the first typed version, a second slightly different version, and I believe two different versions after that. Plus an amazing amount of outtakes, false starts, and an even an unfinished sequel.

So let's sum up: The Infamous War Novel (its sequel included) morphed into an unfinished story called "Vigil", which morphed into an unfinished novel called True Faith, which morphed into a novel called The Phoenix Effect, which morphed into the current trilogy. Which may or may not go through one more retooling. You could say I've been writing the same novel for the last twenty-one years, and never quite managed to say what I wanted to say with it. Frustrating, sure, but at least I can safely say that I've got other stories I'm working on that have no link to it at all. At least I'm not a one-novel writer, which has always worried me.

And the funny thing is that the idea behind the Infamous War Novel still intrigues me enough, and I've been away from it long enough, that I could concievably work on it one final time and actually have a decent, finished novel. We'll see where this takes us...

Comments

[emmalyon.livejournal.com]

You can be like Michener, and find it in a closet stuck on a back shelf after 40 years; by then you'll be such a big name that they'll publich it unchanged.

[joncwriter.livejournal.com]

Unchanged? Heh...with this thing, it would be a career-killer. It's THAT badly written. ;)

[emmalyon.livejournal.com]

Have you seen some of the stuff they've published by guys like Michener and Stephen King that they wrote when they were young and dumb? "Good" does not enter into it.

[mooseythehut.livejournal.com]

What's it about? (well we got the war part :P) But what was the idea behind the original story, if you don't mind sharing...?