Hi all, I started by writing a short steampunk story, and with all these things, grew into a series of three short (15-20,000) stories. Anyway, my rough plot done, i started writing...I've gotten about 5000 words in, not to far, but i've realised that without being all cliche (everything brass and cog's) I have gone off the idea of steampunk a tiny bit. I've always been good with fantasy books, and the 5000 words i wrote were written more as a fantasy story, so i decided to take the leap and jump over. I'm wondering if i should carry on, and change the back details during rewrites, or scrap the whole lot and start again? I've had a few plot swaps, instead of stopping a madmad finishing a weapon, it's now a mission to stop a madman from reading an ancient spellbook, there are still airships, but its more a fantasy world than Earth now. Just not sure which route to take on the matter, Thanks
Whatever works for you, I'd say. Some people just go on writing and worry about details later. I myself need to have a pretty good idea what it is going to be before I feel like writing it, and the inconsistencies would distract me, so if I were in your place I'd probably start all over again. But if you think the changes weren't so many and you have the next scene already pictured in your mind, maybe you can just search and replace "weapon" for "spellbook", continue with the story and polish the rest later.
I'd say, if you can carry on, do carry on. Forward progress on a story is too precious to halt it for something that you could do later.
There's really no reason you can't have both. Cthullu gets tossed into steampunk all the time, and vice-versa. You do need to figure out which way you're going before you move on, though, or you're going to have a hell of a lot of rewriting in the end. Plus, there's a very good chance that it'll affect your plot. The novel I just finished started out in third person, but about 120 pages in I figured out that it needed to be first person. I could've kept on writing, now in first person, and fixed the rest later, but I didn't because a switch of POV is enough to possibly change the story. So don't put it off! If nothing else, you'll refamiliarize yourself with the story.
I'm also genre-bending, with a story that is supernatural thriller in a largely street fiction context. Do what you do, and say what you need to say. But when you find yourself genre-bending, it's important to give your reader some cues near the outset to let them know that your steam-punkish world does not follow strict steam-punk rules. Just as you shouldn't pop out a Martian invasion halfway through a cozy English-cottage mystery, you shouldn't leave your reader with the feeling that you switched the rules on them unfairly. This is fairly easily remedied, but it may require some re-work on the front end to give the reader some sense as to what may or may not be possible in the world you have created.
