[CupcakeDolly]

So, a while ago I got it into my head that I would start publishing some half-assed literature to make a little bit of money on the side. The book I'm working on at the moment was going to be a throwaway romance novel set in a unique fantasy world (because I don't give much of a crap about the romance aspects, but I didn't want to hate my own story completely). However, as I wrote, I abandoned the romance part of it almost completely and the plot has become something much more intricate than I'd originally intended. I have ideas for where I want it to go, but it involves social, psychological, and (for some reason) economic facets that, frankly, I am just not intelligent enough to flesh out in a way that makes sense. I still wanted to add in romance, but it would end up being a much darker part of the story than I'd planned. At this point, I'm so unsure about where to go with it that I've stopped writing completely, and that leaves me with an unsettling empty feeling in my stomach.

Wow, that was a bit of a ramble. Anyway, I guess what I'd like to know from everyone else is: What would you do in my situation? Would you go back to the beginning and redo the whole thing, or keep going and try to make all of the pieces fit together somehow? Would you dumb it down and maybe make more of a profit, or challenge yourself and risk creating a big glob of nonsense? Or maybe there are other options you'd consider?

Discuss! Share! Any and all opinions are welcome!

[Glitch]

What I would do is ---
if it's in a fantasy setting you just make up your own economic rules so it's ok if you don't know how it would work in the real world, this is your world, it works how you want it to work. On the psychological aspects you could just do a bit of research and learn the basic habits and tendencies of people with whatever ailments and then just continue on writing them that way.

The best thing to do, I think, is just keep writing. When it's finished you can either go through and mark up everything you need to flesh out or doesn't make sense. You could also have a copy editor or somebody who knows something about writing do that part for you and then start doing your research and figuring out how to fix all the things that didn't work quite right.

[Salone]

Glob it like marinara on a bread stick.

If I'm writing about something I don't know about, I like to take a break in the writing to go look at the thing I'm having issues with and how they work. Generally you can get by with the simple meat and potatoes of the subject. Unless you're writing a study on economics, I wouldn't worry about flubbing too much. Most likely your target audience won't scrutinize you on it too horribly. Even if they do, NASA has been crying foul for years at the movie industry, and everyone keeps ignoring them. Just find a simple overview of the subject, familiarize yourself with a few words and the process, and that's it. Anything else is too in depth and writing about those parts will most likely distract readers from the main focus of the story.

Or I could be making this all up as I go. How have you addressed the issue before?

[CupcakeDolly]

You guys are probably right. I'm overthinking things, as usual. It's going to be a bit more of a challenge, but going forward with what I have might be better. I'll most likely dumb it down just a bit though and focus more on the main character and less on the particulars of the world.

Originally Posted by Salone

How have you addressed the issue before?

I haven't. I've never finished anything longer than a short story. Poor planning on my part, I guess.