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I think I really need a keyboard to write now. How pathetic is that?
I have a ton of ideas rattling around in my brain, and each time I start to work on one, eight more pop up and go, "No, me!" Sadly, none of them are the conclusion to the problem that I'm having with Last Rites (namely, how to get everyone together at the end without having the major villian look like an incompetant moron who should have seen all this coming) - that little voice is hiding right now, waiting for...I dunno. Christmas?
Which is why I'm blogging, because I'm hoping to jar some things loose. I have several ideas for NaNoWriMo, but I'm not wedded to any of them (TPC is on hold while I find a plot that doesn't sound like it came out of a night drinking with Mel Brooks and Stan Lee, and I STILL don't know why Oberon loses his mind in Underhill.) and I can't start writing any of them anyways. Blood is still calling to me (that's the one with the girl who heals herself but is mute, and the cop who doesn't believe in magic and then falls back in time), but again, I have no plot. Hell, I was reduced to trawling through TvTropes earlier today, hoping for inspiration. Alas, everything is stale right now.
I'm contemplating just starting Last Rites with what I have, and see what comes out. I know, shocking. No real outline, just a plot summary that may or may not work and see what shakes out. I'm a little afraid that I'll end up with a mess, but hey, it's better than a blank page, right? The Neo is going to start coming with me to work so I can do SOMETHING while I'm sitting here, waiting for the phone to ring. (Yes, I do love this shift, but I can see it getting mind-numbing if I don't bring in SOMETHING to do after 6:30 pm, when I'm pretty much alone. Not that I'm complaining. I can listen to music, which is a MAJOR win!)
I also am in the "I hate everything I've ever written, and I want to write something DIFFERENT!" mindset that I hit every so often. I think I haven't been reading enough fiction lately - I've been reading all nonfiction. I shall remedy that on Thursday, after paying my library fines, when I shall pick up (hopefully!) The Graveyard Book and Coraline by Neil Gaiman, and who knows. Maybe I'll pick up American Gods too, because I thought I'd read it and I don't remember it. And since I can't afford any new books, I'll need to get my fix from the library for a while.
But going back to the mindset for a bit - the problem is that I LIKE writing what I write. I write dark. I write bloody. I write magic. And it's FUN. Or it is when I can decide what the heck story is coming out.
So in the next few weeks, you may see quite a few different metrics here. Some of them might not ever come back. Some of them might grow into novels. And some might be short stories or novellas. I'm getting back into playing with my writing, and I have no idea what might come of it. I might not make NaNo, because I might be deep into something else.
I SHOULD be deep into Last Rites. I need to get writing on that, which might be part of the problem. This is going to be Nikki and the gang's last book, and I'm a little sad about that. Then again, who knows? Maybe there will be other things down the road...
I'm also thinking of totally redesigning my website as a Wordpress site, so I can update it myself. I love my webmistress, but money is getting tight (and is likely to get tighter in the very, very near future) and I need to be able to do it myself.
And hell, since it's so long, I might as well continue on. You'll probably see a lot of meanderings on this blog in the next few weeks, as I try on some different ideas. Some might vanish if I decide to go with them. Some might die. Who knows.
Right now, I'm pondering a town, on the coast of New England. Probably in Maine, because New Hampshire has such a small coast that I can't hide a town there, but I could on the coast of Maine. And this town has to be hidden - perched on the edge of a bay, a lost bay, a bay with mermaids and selkies and tunnels into the Underworld. A town with magic walking through the town, blowing in the wind, falling with the rain and snow. A town of slightly odd folk, existing just that one degree off from the rest of the world. Hidden from the rest of the world by dark trees and darker knowledge, only one or two roads into it. Not cut off from the modern world, no, not completely, but partially. I don't have any real characters yet, and I don't have any plot, but I do have a town. I just don't know what to do with it yet, but I'll find something.
Sorry for the meanderings. Sad to say, I'm going to be doing a lot of them in the coming weeks. Maybe it's just the season? Dunno. Maybe.
Hmm, magical jack-o-lanterns....
I have a ton of ideas rattling around in my brain, and each time I start to work on one, eight more pop up and go, "No, me!" Sadly, none of them are the conclusion to the problem that I'm having with Last Rites (namely, how to get everyone together at the end without having the major villian look like an incompetant moron who should have seen all this coming) - that little voice is hiding right now, waiting for...I dunno. Christmas?
Which is why I'm blogging, because I'm hoping to jar some things loose. I have several ideas for NaNoWriMo, but I'm not wedded to any of them (TPC is on hold while I find a plot that doesn't sound like it came out of a night drinking with Mel Brooks and Stan Lee, and I STILL don't know why Oberon loses his mind in Underhill.) and I can't start writing any of them anyways. Blood is still calling to me (that's the one with the girl who heals herself but is mute, and the cop who doesn't believe in magic and then falls back in time), but again, I have no plot. Hell, I was reduced to trawling through TvTropes earlier today, hoping for inspiration. Alas, everything is stale right now.
I'm contemplating just starting Last Rites with what I have, and see what comes out. I know, shocking. No real outline, just a plot summary that may or may not work and see what shakes out. I'm a little afraid that I'll end up with a mess, but hey, it's better than a blank page, right? The Neo is going to start coming with me to work so I can do SOMETHING while I'm sitting here, waiting for the phone to ring. (Yes, I do love this shift, but I can see it getting mind-numbing if I don't bring in SOMETHING to do after 6:30 pm, when I'm pretty much alone. Not that I'm complaining. I can listen to music, which is a MAJOR win!)
I also am in the "I hate everything I've ever written, and I want to write something DIFFERENT!" mindset that I hit every so often. I think I haven't been reading enough fiction lately - I've been reading all nonfiction. I shall remedy that on Thursday, after paying my library fines, when I shall pick up (hopefully!) The Graveyard Book and Coraline by Neil Gaiman, and who knows. Maybe I'll pick up American Gods too, because I thought I'd read it and I don't remember it. And since I can't afford any new books, I'll need to get my fix from the library for a while.
But going back to the mindset for a bit - the problem is that I LIKE writing what I write. I write dark. I write bloody. I write magic. And it's FUN. Or it is when I can decide what the heck story is coming out.
So in the next few weeks, you may see quite a few different metrics here. Some of them might not ever come back. Some of them might grow into novels. And some might be short stories or novellas. I'm getting back into playing with my writing, and I have no idea what might come of it. I might not make NaNo, because I might be deep into something else.
I SHOULD be deep into Last Rites. I need to get writing on that, which might be part of the problem. This is going to be Nikki and the gang's last book, and I'm a little sad about that. Then again, who knows? Maybe there will be other things down the road...
I'm also thinking of totally redesigning my website as a Wordpress site, so I can update it myself. I love my webmistress, but money is getting tight (and is likely to get tighter in the very, very near future) and I need to be able to do it myself.
And hell, since it's so long, I might as well continue on. You'll probably see a lot of meanderings on this blog in the next few weeks, as I try on some different ideas. Some might vanish if I decide to go with them. Some might die. Who knows.
Right now, I'm pondering a town, on the coast of New England. Probably in Maine, because New Hampshire has such a small coast that I can't hide a town there, but I could on the coast of Maine. And this town has to be hidden - perched on the edge of a bay, a lost bay, a bay with mermaids and selkies and tunnels into the Underworld. A town with magic walking through the town, blowing in the wind, falling with the rain and snow. A town of slightly odd folk, existing just that one degree off from the rest of the world. Hidden from the rest of the world by dark trees and darker knowledge, only one or two roads into it. Not cut off from the modern world, no, not completely, but partially. I don't have any real characters yet, and I don't have any plot, but I do have a town. I just don't know what to do with it yet, but I'll find something.
Sorry for the meanderings. Sad to say, I'm going to be doing a lot of them in the coming weeks. Maybe it's just the season? Dunno. Maybe.
Hmm, magical jack-o-lanterns....
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American Gods is a fabulous book, but I might be biased--it hits on almost all of my fictional kinks. So. ;)
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As for plots, I went to an interesting little class at Pennsic on Fairy Tale and Legend, based on the work of Vladimir Propp in "Morphology of the Folktale". I can forward you the class notes if you like.
In a nutshell, the idea is that there is a sort of grammar of fairy tale and myth, with specific elements which appear in traditional stories in a specific order. There are 31 of them, although not all have to be included in a given story. The mechanism can be used, for example, to describe the plot of both Star Wars and Harry Potter, although Harry Potter violates the order of the list. (Not that you can't do that with cheerful abandon for fiction, it just stops fitting the "traditional" model.)
Obviously you need to add personality, and setting, but the general plot elements might be helpful if you've got characters and setting, and are just casting about for things to do with them.
It sounds intriguing enough that I mean eventually to dig up a copy of Propp's book and read the whole thing, but it's pretty far down in the research queue.
FWIW, I've found that half my creative problems go away when I manage to let go and stop trying to micromanage by creative impulses. Go ahead and write what comes. If it's crap you can thrown it out later, and it beats staring at a blank screen. That doesn't let you skip the conscious wordsmithing after the fact, but you can fix scanty descriptions and repetitious dialogue later, as long as the plot flows.
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I'm not sure what I'm doing with this town. I had a weird dream about Christmastown last night, and it might end up being something like that. Maybe this is where Santa summers? I dunno.
Although that's an interesting premise...
And yeah, I'm afraid I'm falling into the "I must know EVERYTHING before I can write" procrastination pothole. So time to let go and see what I find.
Hopefully you guys can deal with the crap I might churn out...
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Writer's Fear (not Writer's Block) is a bitch, isn't it? I know you'll bust out of it... and I'll see you at the finish line of NaNo. I'm under zombiegoat, of course.
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Maybe I'll go back this weekend and see if Tom is talking to me yet...
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Weird feeling. but good.
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I have TOO MANY projects ongoing. Argh.
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