User blog:Vngel W/Limbo, Impulsiveness, and more

What is the longest period of time you have held a story in your mind or in development/conceptual limbo?

I was curious to hear from everyone on how long they have ever kept a story bottled- up or still do so to this day. I know that I had stories in my mind for years, and still do, some with the full-blown plot elements (beginning, middle, and end) but without the meat in the middle. One story in particular, The Great Occam Cobb was a story I thought of 2-3 years ago. A few plot points were changed up but the basic elements that held up the story remained the same.

This brings me to my next question.

Have you ever started to write another story in the midst of writing another?

I ask this because I've done so quite a bit. There is one story that's been in limbo for about 4 years now, I believe. Anyways, I began to write it and was able to push out about five chapters when I suddenly felt the urge to write the story about Occam Cobb. For some reason, I felt the need to write it at that moment and literally halted the story I was working on and began writing that one until it was finished. After finishing it, I returned to the previous story until yet again, I felt a random story cross my mind (this past Thanksgiving) and halted my progress to work on it. That story is, Upon the Veil of Night and is currently in the Workshop awaiting feedback. So, I was curious to see if anyone else has ever done as I have mentioned above, and if so how many times?

My last question pertains more to the idea of writing a series.

What are some of the key elements readers/writers look for when creating a series for stories?

Lately, I was inspired to start my own series, luckily after I completed Upon the Veil of Night. :P

This spontaneous inspiration somewhat extends off an earlier blog post by Doom Vroom which discusses where writers derive their inspirations. My own inspiration for wanting to create this series came from three areas: Banningk1979's Hyraaq Tobit series -- which I had the pleasure to read The Demon Tobit of Delphia from We Go Bump Volume 3 and enjoyed it and will be pursing the rest of the series in the future, MMpratt99 deviantart's, The Last Day of October series -- another series I enjoyed, and lastly, from looking at pictures on Deviantart website. All of these of small ingredients molded in my mind and set forth an idea to create my own, and I have a great portion of the story's plot in my head already. Of course, I feel the need to write other stories first before I attempt this feat in order to enhance my writing skills further.

This question like the others can be answered by anyone not just the writer's I mentioned above.

In the end, I wanted to hear some opinions while also recieving insight on future projects. Please comment and let me hear from you. Thanks for your time!