What's Your WIP?

[Leonidas]

My apologies if there's already a thread like this, but I'm intrigued, and I always want to know where other authors get their inspiration from. So, what's your WIP? Do you have more than one going at once? What genre do you think it is, and what inspired you to write it?

As of right now, my current WIP is a literary fiction novel about a gay marine and the war in Iraq. I only have one project going right now -- this one-- but I'm thinking about two others, both of which are historical fiction. My original inspiration for this particular WIP was a dream that then mutated into an obsession with the current war and the people I know who are personally fighting it everyday.

[dios4vida]

I write in fantasy. (woo!)

I have one project that's out in Queryland right now, but it looks like it'll be coming back for more work. It's a high fantasy about a man who accidentally releases these horrible creatures into the world, and in order to defeat them he has to gather four hidden treasures that contain the most potent magic in the world.

My other WIP is another high fantasy about four characters - a warrior, a sellsword, a victim, and a rebel, respectively - who are mortal enemies but who must fight together to defeat an evil, mind-controlling race. It's a very complicated storyline but that's the gist.

[Emily J]

I have too many WiPs I think. Currently working on 4 different projects with a 5th planned for November (I love NaNoWriMo).

YA Fantasy: The Nameless 4: The continuing story of a girl living in rural CT who gets pulled into a world of magic and changelings (and yes I know it's hard to get a series published as a newbie author but I just can't stop writing the dang things, I'm having too much fun)

Science Fiction: Founder: Sci-fi story where the protagonist travels to an isolated community to donate genetic material. I have compared it to the Giver in Space.

YA Steampunk: A story of a girl who discovers a secret world through a grandfather clock. Inspired in equal parts by C.S. Lewis and my father's massive collection of antique clocks.

Epic Fantasy/Science Fiction: Dark tale revolving around a young male protagonist caught in the politics of two warring nations. Blurs the line between science fiction and fantasy (i'd call it fantasy with a pseudo-scientific explanation).

And I have another YA fantasy novel planned for NaNoWriMo. Ahh! I think I may have too much on my plate. Hoping to finish at least 1 before November.

Are 4 WiP too many? I'm not sure what the norm is. When ideas grab me, I run with them, often at the expense of my current project. I'm the sort with 6 ideas too many, though.

[Aimée]

I have been working on four projects, but early this morning I had the perfect idea of how to tie them all together, since they are all fairly short and simple. All four stories are literary fiction, describing the journey of a young man (four different men: one in each story) of discovering pretty much the meaning of life, and defying their roots, or fate, or whatever you want to call it, and learning to let go of their pasts. That is very, very vague, because, of course, the stories are all different. The only thing they have in common is the fact that they all have a young man on a journey to change his philosophy of life, but it just so happens the philosophy and messages of all the four stories are exactly the same. I hope I can pull it off. :)
I got my inspiration for each of the stories from different places. TV shows, especially LOST, other books, some movies, and just some of my life experiences have given me inspiration.
I'm a slow writer, mostly because I work on more than one project at a time, but all four of these stories are fairly new to me. They have been jumbling around in my head for a while, but I've only recently started to get them down on paper.

[sbs_mjc1]

Mike and I are a writing fantasy/alternate history/historical fantasy novel (almost done-- home stretch, y'all!) set in 18th century Britain. Part of the inspiration is actual propaganda from the time (which I came across during a research project) in which the English claimed that the Scots had summoned demons to their cause. The second was an urge to deconstruct at lot of the fictional portrayals of Scottish history (yes, I'm pointing a finger at Walter Scott's Rob Roy).

http://www.authonomy.com/books/23933/fo ... k/#chapter

[Ishta]

sbs: I love Scottish history! I am OBSESSED with it! Please, PLEASE email me. I want to know all about this propaganda and these myths that you talk about.

[MedleyMisty]

10 :)

It's the story of the villain of my Sims story as a 15 year old. Lots of angst and violence and crushiness, with a hint of alchemy. :) I guess it's like - I don't know. Last night I spent like an hour on a sentence. The rhythm of the sentence seemed to call for an adjective with the letters d and r in it, but after staring at it and rearranging and deleting I ended up with a new rhythm that didn't need an adjective. And then today at work a new verb came to me, and well - the sentence is far from its original structure but it seems to flow well.

I also go for cliffhangers and excitement and suspense and thrills. :) 10 is going at a slower pace than Valley did, though - what with being full text and more of a character study and taking place over a few weeks, as opposed to three days.

Signed up for WeSeWriMo (Web Series Writing Month) this month with a goal of a chapter a week, so I'd better get back to work researching lemon balm tinctures and wrangling words into music. I don't think that sentence is quite perfect yet.

[sarahdee]

I have several too. That I am currently writing(ish)

One is a epic urban adventure with a international secret society deciding to get rid of the over populated world by releasing an alien virus that goes horribly wrong (well the story is a lot more complicated than that but you get the general picture). Its new genre for me to write in as lots of action, and fighting and stuff.

One is a comedy, diary style travel log. I have done an awful lot of backpacking around the world so its partly based on true stories (mine and other travellers I have met) but wildly exaggerated. And the 'hero' is a 30s something man who decides to go travelling after a nasty break-up even though his usual holidays abroad have been boy's trips to Magaluf.

And the last is a collection of mystery short stories with one main character- its supposed to be like a modern Agatha Christie type premise. So far I have just finished one but if I get 4-5 together I could put them together as a novel perhaps....

I also have ideas for a literary fiction book which is several families all vaguely linked and a YA adventure novel but so far I haven't started on these.

But I'm trying to not work on any of them and concentrate on my first novel which needs a good re-edit before I query again :)

[Heather B]

I too, have four. But they're series. And one of them has a spin off planned. They're all fantasy.

I never do things in halves and they're all planned out. I'm working on the first of each to begin with; one is finished, one is currently being re-written and one is about to be started. It will be a long process but I'm ready for it - and it's fun.

[Harper Karcz]

I've only got one that I'm actively writing, but two others that are percolating. I've written several drafts of those, but they need to be reimagined and rewritten. Sigh.

Active WIP: YA mystery about a guy who goes missing during his school choir's trip to NYC -- and the reclusive girl who has the clues to figure out where he is. I'm mainly writing this one to practice plot and pacing. I doubt if I'll send it out anywhere.

The percolating WIPs:

YA mystery / thriller -- I call it The Conversation (1974 Francis Ford Coppola movie) meets Assassins (Stephen Sondheim / John Weidman musical). Probably not the most marketable "meet" ever. It's about a 17-year-old named Mitchell, the would-be class valedictorian, who's suspicious about people to the point of keeping a "conspiracy file" on nearly everyone in his life. He's also obsessed with assassination conspiracy theories. Then he discovers a conspiracy right in front of him that he has to solve. If only I could figure out WHAT this conspiracy was and what the stakes of solving it were. In the past seven drafts, the conspiracy was about his dead father, but that never really came together in a satisfying way.

YA magic realism -- I like this one the best, and yet it's in the most disarray of all my WIPs. There's a protagonist (Mercedes) who's an artist, and there's her best friend / object of tacit affection, who's a ballerina. And there's a shapeshifting goblin who's messing with both of their art. I still don't know how it all works together, and I've written the blasted thing three times now. The inspiration was mainly the protagonist, who I've been writing about for almost two decades now. Also, the poetry and essays of Garcia Lorca figure into the story and my inspiration for it.

[charlotte49ers]

I've got two, but I'm only hardcore working on the first:

YA Dystopian (The Devil's Utopia): I have a craptacular summary on my blog and an opening that is soon to change some: http://www.amandaplavich.com/summaries/ ... ls-utopia/

YA Contemp (Delilah Wakes): Another very crappy summary: http://www.amandaplavich.com/summaries/delilah-wakes/

As you can tell, I pretty well suck at summaries, so I'm going to have to put a lot of work into my queries.