To give you a view of all the projects that are wrestling for my attention (and to shame myself into actually getting some of them done), I thought I'd share a list of my unfinished writing projects. Please note, I'm listing these in no particular order and some of these were stories I started back in middle school and I still like some of the ideas even if I'd have to do a complete overhaul of them while others I might have mentioned in other blog posts. I'll be giving a short description of each project and I'd be curious to know which ones sound the most intriguing to you.
I hope you find this list interesting and if you are a writer, maybe you'll find it encouraging that you're not the only one struggling with this problem.
Current Unfinished Projects
1. Shadow's Mist- YA fantasy, possible duology. Jun shia'Fang has a rare gift; she can heal using only her words. While she dreams of becoming a great healer like her mother, this power is demonized by the people she wishes to serve and in a culture where warriors are valued over anything else, her refusal to do harm to another has cast her even further from the good graces of the people. When the king grants her a chance to prove herself by sending her on a scouting mission into the land of dragons, she is both excited to prove kindness is more powerful than strength and nervous that the stories about what lurks in the mists are more than wives tales. Meanwhile, Karyan wants to be the most powerful sorceress in all the lands and has trained under the dark dragon, Toriel, for most of her life. When she is given an ultimatum, capture the thing in the mist and weaponize it against the dragon's enemies or be sent back to the caves for retraining, she must hurry to complete her experiments. A chance meeting with Jun sparks an idea of how to capture the creature that stalks the mists but it will cost Jun dearly.
2. Right to Rule- YA or NA sci-fi; either a stand alone or a duology. Del is the second son of a galactic tyrant and one of the Mara he had taken hostage during his conquest. As the second son and a hybrid, Del expects to be kept on a tight leash and to serve as a fighter pilot under his father and eventually his older brother. When a rebellion manages to reach the capital and shoot down the heir prince's ship, Del is suddenly thrust into heir to the throne. The rebels capture the city and execute the king, promising to do the same to the rest of the royal family. Now fleeing for his life, Del escapes towards his mother's home planet on the outer edge of the empire with the rebel's hero, Callum, in close pursuit.
3. Help Wanted- NA urban fantasy; stand alone. Mallory needs a job. Any paying job. When he answers an ad in the paper for a personal assistant, he is shocked to learn Death needs a new grim reaper. It pays well but he is always on call and he has no say over who or how someone dies, he simply must be present to help the deceased pass over. With rent due and medical bills piling up, he takes the job with the added benefit that he can ask Death to spare one person.
4. Halfbaked- historical fiction; stand alone. Leona is a young mother, recently married, and now living in a cabin with her husband's brother and his own wife and son. While the two families are supposed to be working together to survive a sudden collapse in the job market, Leona cannot shake the feeling that her sister-in-law is petty, vindictive, and out to prove she doesn't belong.
5. Untitled Fairy Tale- literary fantasy; stand alone. This story is currently more of an abstract idea than anything else. It is a combination of the fairy tales Bluebeard and The East of the Sun and West of the Moon with the added twist of being gender neutral. It is currently in a perpetual brainstorm and outline stage.
6. Cruel Sister- fantasy; stand alone. Based on the Bonny Swans Ballad. This has a first draft depicting when the young woman is confronted on her wedding night by a musician with a magical harp that knows of the cruel things she did in order to steal the man she loves from her sister. I've put this on the back burner until I can do something more original with it.
7. Fear Runs Red- short stories. A series of short stories based on various reoccurring nightmares that I've had in my life.
8. Fate's Spindal-- fantasy short story. The old woman who has to spin the life thread of the princess Aurora as the various fairies give her their gifts and curses is working late into the night when the young princess wanders in and asks her to teach her the art of spinning.
9. Rocking Horse Story- literary short story. A version of D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner" told from the perspective of the rocking horse. Shelved.
10. Tarolyn- children's story. Written for one of the kids I used to babysit, this story follows a little girl each day as she decides what she wants to be that day from princess to spy to doctor to herself.
11. Mac- middle school short chapter book. Written for one of the kids I used to babysit, this is a detective story where local attractions are disappearing from the town and the protagonist must figure out who is stealing them and why.
12. Time Jump- Sci-fi YA or NA. This has multiple ideas connected to it, some leaning more historical fiction and others leaning more sci-fi. Scientists have discovered how to time travel but the technology was deemed too dangerous to use, partly because it would split reality more often than change it and partly because it was nearly impossible to safely calculate the exact time and location the device would send someone to. When one of the scientists sneaks a device from the being destroyed, he and his family set up an smuggling operation where they will go back in time and steal something to resell in the present. In a world where humanity is trapped in giant bunkers to survive earth's inhospitable climate, anything from clothing to music can quickly earn them a fortune.
13. Cyra- YA fantasy. magic has been hunted to near extinction. Cyra wants to learn to use her powers but no one is willing to teach her. When hunters capture her, she is taken to the castle for trial but something has set off a series of catastrophes, threatening the entire kingdom.
14. Witch's Cottage- Historical fantasy. I have published a short story version of this but I'm thinking of expanding it into a larger story. Terrawyn is one of the Ancient People, a race of fae, but hides in the village, offering medicine and aid while protecting them from the old woman in the woods who legend says feeds on people lost in the forest. An Inquisitor arrives and suddenly everyone is looking over their shoulder and pointing fingers. When Terrawyn notices more eyes on her she has to work harder to hide what she is or go back to the forest with her grandmother.
15. Si'ren- YA fantasy. A young mermaid wants to become the next leader of her pod but must prove herself fitter for the role than the other young calves in the pod. One day while hunting further than usual, she stumbles across a human girl, a creature she'd always been told here just stories.
16. The Wyrmling- YA fantasy. Everyone is born with a gift which manifests by the age of seventeen. When this happens, they may choose a guide, a creature who will direct them towards the best life path for them as they learn to use their gifts for the benefit of the village. Akkiko's gift manifested when she was twelve and unlike everyone else, her gift is to take the powers of others and use them as her own. Shunned by her village, she has kept to the fringe of her society, working to keep everyone safe from the wyrms and drakes that roam the mountains and forests. One day, a dragon appears to destroy the village. Akkiko touches the creature during their battle and the power that transfers to her is a parasite, driven to hunt and consume more and more powerful creatures. Cursed, she runs from her home only to discover a war brewing with her mountain village caught in the crossfire.
17. The Unfortunate Death of Dorian Greene- NA Urban fantasy; possibly a duology. Dorian is a normal college sophomore until one night at a club for a friend's birthday that leaves him waking up in a blood den, recently embraced as a vampire and abandoned by his sire. While human blood is preferable, some vampires enjoy the taste of blood from a recently embraced vampire as they slowly grow into the night creature they've become. While being hunted by the owners of the blood den, he meets others who warn him his embrace should be impossible but if it's real, humans and night creatures are in danger. Tia was embraced after her family died from a plague spread by the crusaders. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to earn the praise and forgiveness of her clan. Now in control of the largest black market trades in the world, she travels frequently for work but a 900 year old vampire that appears 10 years old cannot travel for business on her own. Kier has agreed to act as body guard and chaperone for Tia as she travels while he waits for a recent inter-clan skirmish to end so he can go home. While watching over Tia, he encounters his little sister, now an old woman and suddenly realizes what his immortality actually means. Emrys enjoys her immortality. She can travel, reinvent herself however she wants, and live however she wants. When a vision warns her of a threat to the existence of the night folk she must abandon her nomadic life to try to save the two worlds she despises. But with no aid from the vampire council, she is forced to turn to an old vampire with his own vision for the future for help.
18. Starting Line- YA or NA sci-fi; extended universe. Students at Unitech are the innovators of the world. Friends Axel, Connor, and Lucy are some of the top students creating new energy technology, which they've applied to cars and are using the university's races to test and promote their work. When a race goes wrong, totaling their car, they're forced to turn to a sponsor for financial help. What starts out as the greatest opportunity they've ever had quickly leads them into the underworld of rival government forces, betrayals, and dark family secrets. This has a lot of potential story spin offs including some that I really want to write.
Those are my current unfinished projects. It's pretty obvious what my interests and preferences are when it comes to writing. I hope you liked this. I'd love to hear which stories interested you the most.
Until next time, travelers.
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