Ramblings Post #292
This blog, after coming off a break, came back a little more political than I like it. But I had a few things to say and waiting wouldn't have made them any better, so I took a moment and did what needed to be done. Now, for something a little lighter. My writing prospects are looking up a little as ideas are starting to percolate and I thought I would bring you kids up to speed. And maybe even update my website. If I can remember the password. What was first pet's name?
So I'm working on this story, right?
To keep it simple, I'm writing bits and pieces of it in Windows notepad, so I don't get bogged down and can just get the parts out that keep popping into my head. A blurb here. A paragraph there. Sometimes two or three pages at a time once I've copied it over. I've tried writing it in other formats, but then I immediately want to go to editing mode, so that what shows up there is the final product. This when I KNOW it's going to need even more editing later, but I can't help myself.
Oh, I know what you're thinking. When are you not working on a story? You know what would be different? Finishing one of these epics you keep going on about! You're a starter, not a finisher. You need to buckle down and write something and finish it. Not an treatment, not just see it all in your head but work out all the details and put them down on paper. How about it?
All that out of your system? Good, because I'm working on this story, right? It's huge, epic, lots of world building and character development, figuring out protagonists and antagonists and...
Um, okay, see, what had happened was....
That first part was from a post last year when I was working on, let's call it story A. Then I went on Reddit and joining writing prompts, and what started as a blurb, is now ANOTHER story, which is story B, that I just can't stop writing. It's not that great, but it's just flowing right now. Now, story B is kinda science-fictiony as well, but more grounded, and involves a mix of government, politics and conspiracies and secret agencies and other stuff I'm just throwing at the word processor to see what happens. I even have the whole thing mapped out. Well, most of it. I have a calender with dates and actions up through what I guess is seventy five percent of it.
So like two stories. I might not finish.
I have recently realized that I have this problem, where I get an idea and just start writing...and then the story just kinda stalls after a while. I once wrote a hundred and seventy five pages, and realized that for some reason I was still introducing characters in the second half of the book. Okay, Skipper and the Doc weren't really main characters, but as I writing out their dialogue it struck me that they only existed to get one of the protagonists from one place to another in the story. They didn't really need to exist or have back stories. It seemed like such a waste, as they were shaping up to be good characters. And that story, Bohemian Cooker, I've also never really figured out where the story was ultimately going. So it sits, and I'm thinking about picking it back up if I ever finish these.
Now I have both of them mapped out. Story A completely, although new little pieces and ideas just keep bubbling up in my head, on my back brain. Story B I try to work on every day. Well, not more than two days off. It's coming along.
I'm a writer. Even if it's only just for me. I feel like I must create.
Barkeep. I need whatever Hemingway drank. No, Faulkner. No, wait, Ralph Ellison. His beverage. I need some inspiration.
This blog, after coming off a break, came back a little more political than I like it. But I had a few things to say and waiting wouldn't have made them any better, so I took a moment and did what needed to be done. Now, for something a little lighter. My writing prospects are looking up a little as ideas are starting to percolate and I thought I would bring you kids up to speed. And maybe even update my website. If I can remember the password. What was first pet's name?
So I'm working on this story, right?
To keep it simple, I'm writing bits and pieces of it in Windows notepad, so I don't get bogged down and can just get the parts out that keep popping into my head. A blurb here. A paragraph there. Sometimes two or three pages at a time once I've copied it over. I've tried writing it in other formats, but then I immediately want to go to editing mode, so that what shows up there is the final product. This when I KNOW it's going to need even more editing later, but I can't help myself.
Oh, I know what you're thinking. When are you not working on a story? You know what would be different? Finishing one of these epics you keep going on about! You're a starter, not a finisher. You need to buckle down and write something and finish it. Not an treatment, not just see it all in your head but work out all the details and put them down on paper. How about it?
All that out of your system? Good, because I'm working on this story, right? It's huge, epic, lots of world building and character development, figuring out protagonists and antagonists and...
Um, okay, see, what had happened was....
That first part was from a post last year when I was working on, let's call it story A. Then I went on Reddit and joining writing prompts, and what started as a blurb, is now ANOTHER story, which is story B, that I just can't stop writing. It's not that great, but it's just flowing right now. Now, story B is kinda science-fictiony as well, but more grounded, and involves a mix of government, politics and conspiracies and secret agencies and other stuff I'm just throwing at the word processor to see what happens. I even have the whole thing mapped out. Well, most of it. I have a calender with dates and actions up through what I guess is seventy five percent of it.
So like two stories. I might not finish.
I have recently realized that I have this problem, where I get an idea and just start writing...and then the story just kinda stalls after a while. I once wrote a hundred and seventy five pages, and realized that for some reason I was still introducing characters in the second half of the book. Okay, Skipper and the Doc weren't really main characters, but as I writing out their dialogue it struck me that they only existed to get one of the protagonists from one place to another in the story. They didn't really need to exist or have back stories. It seemed like such a waste, as they were shaping up to be good characters. And that story, Bohemian Cooker, I've also never really figured out where the story was ultimately going. So it sits, and I'm thinking about picking it back up if I ever finish these.
Now I have both of them mapped out. Story A completely, although new little pieces and ideas just keep bubbling up in my head, on my back brain. Story B I try to work on every day. Well, not more than two days off. It's coming along.
I'm a writer. Even if it's only just for me. I feel like I must create.
Barkeep. I need whatever Hemingway drank. No, Faulkner. No, wait, Ralph Ellison. His beverage. I need some inspiration.
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