I’ve been thinking tonight about the stories I want to tell, largely because I decided to sned my friend Tealin the email equivilent of lunging at her wild-eyed* and yelling “WE… MUST COLLABORATE!!” Her response was positive, which is good, because she is an incredibly talented artist and the idea of creating a world with her is exciting. I’m excited.
I’ve sat down and thought about the stories that I want to tell right now. One of those stories has actually been floating around in my head for quite some time and tackles the subject of religion, but I can’t figure out exactly what I want to do with it or, indeed, what the message is behind it (although I’m closer to knowing now than I was when I first came up with the idea). Tealin has pointed out, though, that there’s a risk of it becoming “vindictive”, and that’s definitely not what I want this story to be. I need to let it stew for a little longer, so back in the Corpse File it goes.
The other story that pops into my head is very loosely autobiographical in nature. I’ve mentioned this before, and I almost started working on it last year. The problem there, and again I may have covered this in a previous entry, is that it touches upon elements of my personal past that are long behind me now and that I don’t feel a strong connection to anymore, even though those elements really only contribute to the back-story and not to the actual goings-on themselves. I’ve sat down a number of times to write this story, but nothing ever comes out.
So where do we go from here? I find myself wondering what sort of thing I want to write. I’m hesitant to do more scifi and I’m not sure I’d feel confident tackling fantasy. I have a few ideas in my head but nothing’s really leaping out at me at the moment. Maybe I just need to write something and see what my brain thinks.
* For some reason this sentence put me in mind of any time during the Back to the Future trilogy where Doc Brown had to tell Marty something catastrophic. I truly believe that Chris Lloyd is the hallmark for wide-eyed craziness.
I’d definitely agree with the latter. A bit of free-writing always does the trick – Even if the result is gibberish, it helps the brain wheels to start turning. Or if it has substance, it can be structured post-rambling 🙂
I also know what you mean about a connection – For me, when I look back on some things I wrote, even just a few weeks ago, I wonder how I ever got the words down on paper, as the same source of inspiration has since been compartmented in some remote and inaccessible corner of my brain!
My main difficulty is trying to train myself to write longer texts and to have more structure – I literally (well..not quite) throw words at the page as they pass through my mind and try to fix them afterwards.
I watched the entire Little Dorrit BBC series at the weekend (I’ve yet to read it) – I wish I could write theatrical characters and nuanced humour like that!
Whatever approach you are taking, it seems to work, as each of your blog posts has a great flow .
The above sounds more like a sermon than a blog post comment :O