- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Okay, this is weird. Well this thread is always weird, but this is taking it to weird places.
Clark has, in a word, abandoned you guys. But before you freak, its a temporary abandonment. We had a conversation last week that essentially consisted of the longest moment of time where neither of us said anything dirty.
To provide some backstory, I'll just say that Clark had a small breakdown, where he initially concluded that it was in his best interest to quit the story and move on, because he's been obsessing over this story so much that he hasn't gotten any other writing done.
It may seem odd, but the truth is he actually spends way too much time mulling over the story, and writing. Only, its been so long, and he's become so frustrated with the way he writes, that its become a destructive circle. He'll set aside a whole day to write, or edit, or do both, and he'll look over everything he's written in say, an hour, and hate it. He'll try and edit it, but it becomes frustrating and agonizing to the point where he gets rid of it and starts from scratch.
He'll do that two or three times and quite quickly he becomes obsessed with this one section, where he constantly writes and rewrites just one small scene, or even just a paragraph.
I'm paraphrasing here, as I really don't understand most of what he was ranting about, but I guess maybe if there's any other writers still laying around in the thread, they might provide some substance?
By creating an unrealistic goal, of having everything he writes be good, immediately, he helped push himself down a path that saw him become so frustrated that he spent more time thinking about the story than actually writing it.
The thing that really started him down this path was when he accidentally read the first 10 or so chapters of the story, and immediately became disgusted by it. He thought it was juvenile and awful. Something a 13 year old girl would write, obsessed with unrealistic romance and action that made no sense.
Of course he had forgotten that in the beginning, he was writing this story as a joke, and put no second thought into what he was making. It's only within the last year that he's really started to look at the story as something serious, and I'm sure most of you will draw the connection that it was about a year ago that the chapters started becoming drawn out. The waits got longer, and while much of that was substantiated by his own personal problems and problems with his family, his newfound outlook on the story helped push it along.
Before anyone freaks, Clark's not abandoning the story, he said that to be sensational and dramatic at first, mainly to get me to take him seriously.
He's "re-evaluating" the method he goes about writing. A revolutionary change is in the works, and that is his own words.
So by abandoning, he was more speaking in the manner of saying that he is disappearing whilst changing the way he writes this story. Its been a constant nagging pain to him for over a year, and it affected the way he was writing other things. He missed deadlines, left projects unfinished, and when he realised he was doing that over something often referred to as "fanfic" and done so derogatorily, he snapped. He wanted to jump ship, bail out, flee, etc...
I found it amusing, that when most people assumed he was losing interest in the story, was actually the first moments when he began to truly take it seriously.
I'm just the messenger here, all I carry is Clark's words, and his comment that, it was either this, or an unfinished story. Granted I'm sure you'll all rant and rave, and complain that this is Clark's three hundredth excuse, but I'm quite sure that if this endeavor of his to revitalise his writing process fails, then this story won't ever end. It'll be left unfinished forever.
Before you say that won't ever happen, take a look at his fanfiction.net profile, and look at the story Close Combat, which was originally going to complete his trilogy of work on his first fanfic attempt. That one has long since been abandoned. Its happened before.
So I'd say, lets all take a little break, one where we don't come back here and wonder when the story comes, because that will just force Clark to post something, and someone will ask for a release date, and he'll give one because he always does, believing he'll make it, then he won't and he'll be miserable. I'd say, give it two weeks, no one post anything unless they have to. I told him I'd post this little revelation because if he did he'd come here and check for everyone's responses, and this way he has no immediate obligation.
I guess that's it. Two weeks from today, check back, and don't be surprised if Clark is here, refreshed and not so snappy. He was getting quite stressed the last while.