It has truly been a long time since I worked on this project. The fact is, I haven't stopped thinking about it, and have in fact realised that the way I was going about trying to construct and write it was counter-productive. Doing some browsing on the net about story-writing, and reading a number of other stories online has given me a better understanding about how such things should be done.
It's a bit like building a house - you don't just start laying bricks willy-nilly. You create plans and you refine them. You then take those plans, split them into sub-plans for each part of the house and then go into more detail. Eventually you have a jigsaw of many little pieces which, when worked on in order, lead to the construction of the final product.
I started on this story in February 2005 with a vague idea of where I wanted to go, but nothing more than that. My 'plan' if it can be called as such was simply to take each idea that came to me, and see where things lead me. But over the course of these past months, my mind developed those ideas, to the point where I had whole sections of script worked out. the only problem - they were in no logical order, and this also served to mess up the overall timeline of the story.
Another slightly disheartening side effect of what to me was a rather amateurish attempt at a significantly more complex project was the low number of reviews. Now I know that no teveryone reviews and I respect that. But I also know people are not going to review shoddy and uninteresting work. So I have taken the decision to start afresh, a little bit at a time rather than large chunks spaced further apart. I'm going to use the new mentality discussed above, to build the story up slowly, possibly with a number of iterations as I move through it. Therefore, you may find that I post a few chapters, then go back and revise them. I ask you to be patient with me. Let's take this journey one step at a time, in fact I ask you to work with me on this. Yes, of course I wantt it to be my own plot and eventual conclusion, but I'm more than willing to accept both guidance and criticism from others, be it good or bad.
I'm not saying this will progress quickly, and I'm aware of the frustration this can cause to readers. I'm 20, a partially sighted University undergraduate student who recently switched to a purely computing-based degree programme. I don't get out much, don't sleep much and the last six months or so have seen me in somewhat of a rut as regards daily life. Bear with me, and give me a nudge when I'm slacking and hopefully this will motivate me to move forwards. Remember, it is indeed true what authors say - we take pride in our creations, but we also take pride in feeling that they are being appreciated and sought after.
I've been told by many people that I have a vivid imagination, that I'm a good writer, etc. But at the same time I'm not a very concentrated person - I don't find it easy to devote a lot of time to one activity. I also find it easier to say things out loud than put them on paper, especially with larger projects. I admit that, and am willing and keen to work towards resolving it. I can picture the day, sometime in the future, where this story is completed, a good few hundred pages long, nicely bound into a PDF file, something I can show to the world and be proud of. That time may be just a few months, or even a few years away, I couldn't tell you. But it is the goal that I have in mind, and hopefully it'll keep me focussed on the path ahead.
OK, I did not imagine this self-confession would take up this much space, but it has and I'm not going to take it back. I've put my intentions down on paper, for all the world to see, and to serve as a reminder of my wow. So it's a new year, let's move forward, onwards and upwards.
Hussein.