Mergers

A strange thought occurred to me yesterday (except it wasn't really all that strange since it kind of crossed my mind before with good reason): that I should merge book one (my first, completed novel) and book three (the one I wrote the majority for for NaNoWriMo). I guess I considered it a strange thought because book one is about 95k- almost four-hundred pages- and doesn't need another story added to it. But at the same time, the two stories remind me so much of each other thematically, and with other things here and there regarding the characters and issues, that it seemed quite possible that I could find some way to make them one.

I have merged two ideas before, but that occured in the gestation period. As I was thinking of what to write for my first NaNoWriMo attempt and I realized that the idea I wanted to go with didn't seem to have much in the way of expansion possibilities, I took another idea that resembled it a little and joined the two and it worked out perfectly; I think they were meant to be that way instead of two separate short stories as I originally had them. And still that particular book (book two) is only 65k (about two-hundred and sixty pages). Hell, it looks like it needs another merger; I might have to go fishing through my ideas and see if one of them could be expanded and annexed onto that work.

But as for one and three, as much similarity as they bear to each other, I think I will keep them separate. Perhaps they both won't make it to see the light of day, perhaps book three is an improvement on and ultimate replacer of book one, perhaps neither will go past their teens (three is still a toddler, one is the teen- the parts are all there and developed but it's still not mature), but I don't think I'll merge them. I just decided that while writing this entry; in fact, in writing this, I am now really inspired to find an idea that could work for book two in order to expand it. Perhaps there's still room for it to grow after all. Or maybe it's supposed to be a four foot ten adult.