@diloolie said: so when is your book
It's whenever I come up with a story idea that:
1) I like enough that I actually want to write it
2) isn't full of characters I don't own the copyright on.
Believe me. I'm riding on a decade-and-a-half-long pissed-off-at-myself train over the fact that I am not compelled by writing anything that isn't fanfiction. I am fucking desperate for a novel idea I can actually publish. Because I've got the creativity! I've got the writing ability! I've got the knowledge base and the necessary research skills! I've got an impressive streak of successes in writing competitions for short fiction!
But it's all in short fiction because short fiction is how long I can tolerate the dull, uninteresting, tedious existences of these pointless soulless husks called my own characters—and also I haven't written even that since I wasn't required to turn it in for a grade.
"Why don't you give them character traits and motivations and lives inspired by the characters you do like" because I don't like them anymore when they're stitched onto these bland-ass dolls I'm trying to write about. It's like putting a rolex watch on a human-sized paper doll.
I've even tried going the expy route by starting out with a fanfic plot and gradually changing names and identifying features until they're my own characters and settings; but the farther they diverge from the established fandom, the less interested I am in them. By the time the story crosses the threshold from "really poorly disguised knockoff of an established franchise" into "fully fleshed out original setting with original characters," I've lost all fucking interest in this cardboard diorama of a world.
That's why I don't have a book. That's why I don't have a dozen books.
And I'm constantly angry about it.