Writer's Block of Doom (when one has too many stories and a massive inability to focus on one of them)

Dear Secret Blogiary,

NaNoWriMo is almost upon me and I am struggling to find a direction. I have two new story ideas that I have been toying with the past couple of weeks and I am equally enthralled with both.

The first is a romance spoof that pokes fun at the ridiculous vampire and werewolf supernatural romances*, the second is my favorite genre, post-apocalyptic.

I also have an older epic fantasy story that has been sorely neglected for a number of years and just this past spring and early summer, I dug up the papers, files and notes and read through them all.

The easiest and least time consuming one would be to go with the older story. I know the characters, the setting, and the plot. Some of the story has been written but for NaNo purposes I would ignore the previously written work and only count the new.

There is something to be said about the familiar. The characters are comfortable, I know them and there reactions. They deserve the attention quite honestly. The only hurdle that I would need to overcome is that the older story was co-created. My BFF and I worked for a good two years at the plot and the background – epics do indeed require a good bit of planning.

We are still BFF’s but she isn’t stateside currently and I feel sort of guilty working on a project that we created. Granted, she has given the go-ahead to do so before, but part of the fun of the story was that she was involved and we could bounce ideas back and forth like a rabid game of ping pong.

The romance I am considering has the characters established and a basic plot outlined. I know what I want to accomplish and where I want to end, but I’m not as passionate as I once was about it. And at this point I use “romance” very loosely. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that my idea leans more to the satirical than the romance.

The post-apocalyptic story is a newer idea that I got after watching one too many late night History Channel shows. I have a main character and a title. Not much else. For the purposes of NaNo, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, having an open concept will allow me more freedom to incorporate crazy dares and more the story the way the character needs it to go. And as it is my favorite genre, I am leaning towards it.

So, Secret Blogiary, which should I choose?


*I’ll save my rant about Twilight, et al., for another post.