Hah! I pun! Am I not clever?

…

Here’s the deal: Over the last half-decade, I’ve written four novels. Not a single one of them is in any sort of publishable shape, but each has its strength, making it a candidate for The One — as in, the one I’m going to spend this year focusing on, as I mentioned here. I’m having trouble overcoming my fear of each deciding which one I should choose.

So here, in chronological order, are the pros and cons of each:

Novel #1

Pros:

  • Completely finished. This one has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it’s in three solid acts.
  • Consistent. It’s been edited multiple times for consistency, so there aren’t any characters in places they couldn’t be, doing things they shouldn’t do, and so on.
  • Not NaNoWriMo. This is the only novel I’ve written outside of National Novel Writing Month, so it’s considerably less messy than the rest.

Cons:

  • Long. Hoo-boy… This is a monster. 120,000 words. Unpublishable at that size, for the most part. I suppose I could change my name to Stephen King…
  • Simplistic. I wouldn’t have said so when I wrote it, but the plot isn’t terribly complex, and frankly, it’s a little hackneyed, because…
  • Old. This novel is the first piece of fiction I ever wrote. The prose is undoubtedly immature, the characters unrealistically portrayed… In short, it’ll be as messy as a NaNoWriMo novel to clean up, because of basic storytelling mechanics problems.

Novel #2

Pros:

  • Completely finished. As above, this novel has a proper end.
  • Well-developed world. This novel takes place in a world setting I’ve been working on for years. I’ve written several short stories that take place in it, so I know the mechanics inside and out.
  • Fun. Since I know the setting well, writing in it is like wearing a comfortable old shoe, so I know I’ll enjoy working in it again.

Cons:

  • Broken. This was my first NaNoWriMo novel, and I hadn’t yet gotten the flow of things when I wrote it, so there are many places where a scene will retcon things that happened before.
  • Complicated. The first novel suffers from simplicity. This one goes the other way. There are many characters, intense intrigues, and complicated situations. I’m afraid of this novel. I may not be a good enough writer to work on it yet.
  • Short. It came in at almost exactly 50,000 words, by skimming and summarizing things terribly. It’s an 80,000 word novel in compressed form, and rewriting it would essentially amount to writing it all over again.

Novel #3

Pros:

  • Awesome idea. The idea that led to this novel gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. I would love to do it again, and do it right.
  • Better prose. I’m a better writer than I was when I wrote the first two novels. There will be more I can save and reuse in this one.
  • Good length. It works out to 60,000 words. I think it’ll work out to 60,000 words again if I rewrite it.

Cons:

  • Bad characters. Ouch… The characters are cardboard cutouts. Reworking them into likable people looks like quite a challenge.
  • Nebulous world. I never did make certain key decisions about how things work in this novel. Making those decisions now could result in large swaths of text down the drain.
  • Unfinished. It didn’t end so much as stop.

Novel #4

Pros:

  • Well-developed world. I did a lot of world-building prior to writing this novel, knowing I wanted a story set in it.
  • Good prose. As the most recent novel I’ve written, the prose in this one is easily the strongest.
  • Strong plot and characters. I did a better job laying this one out than any of the previous ones, and the characters are good, especially the protagonist.

Cons:

  • Unfinished. Stopped writing. Ran out of steam. No idea how the damn thing ends.
  • Complicated. Again, I’m not sure I’m a good enough writer to fix the problems and tie everything together, even if I do figure out an end.
  • Controversial themes. This is by no means an adults-only novel, but there are issues of sex and sexuality in it that might make it a non-starter even after I’ve polished the heck out of it. I’m not at all sure that’s a landmine I’m ready to step on.

Of course, all this leads me to option #5… Write a new goddamn novel and throw these ones in the rubbish bin.

Well anyway, I’m open to suggestions.