Just Because You Can...

I realized something today.  My first WIP, The Fox and the Sparrow (working title), had hit a wall a while ago.  I loved the story, but I came to a point where I was lost as to where I was going, and today as I was driving home, I did some hard thinking as to why that was.

And I came to this conclusion: I had two different sorts of characters and worlds trying to inhabit the same novel.  Rather I was forcing them together.

I love my characters Tam and Quill.  Their strength is their mysterious and interesting past, their personalities, and their strong relationship and loyalty to each other.  They would have to be the focus of a story to really give them the platform they needed.

The strength in The Fox and the Sparrow is the world and the City of Immerhaine.  The masks, the Peacock, all of it creates a certain feel and aura that just doesn’t quite fit with the world of Tam and Quill.  It deserves its own novel to really shine.

I mean, I could have written them together.  In fact that’s what I was doing, but it was like building a bridge between two different sorts of places and hoping it would work.  I’m sure it would have, but I would have ended up with an incredibly complex epic fantasy.  Nothing’s wrong with that (I am a Tad Williams fan after all) but I realized the world of the Fox and the Sparrow would be stronger and better if it was on its own in a stand alone.

Which leads me to my bigger point:

Just because I could make it part of something large and epic, didn’t mean I should.

It’s a good rule to remember because some times, I know in my over eagerness to write something, I end up not showing off the characters in the best possible way. Self editing can be a good thing, so ask yourself when things start to get muddled, or even before you begin writing: Just because I can, should I?


In some cases, no, you really shouldn't.  Really really shouldn't.