A Case of the Blahs

I have dozens, maybe even hundreds of partial ideas and story prompts. Several jump out at me and I think, "That would be cool." But that's it. No flood of subsequent ideas. Just a desire to write a story that would be cool. It’s like… I'm just not feeling it. But I want to write something.

It's not writer's block. It’s just writer's meh.

I need something to give me that push off the edge. The thing that makes me stop what I'm doing and say, "Holy shit, what if that happened?!" That's the best thing, when you have so many ideas and plans and you can’t write it down fast enough. It's a rare thing.

Rogue Plot Bunnies

I have a lot of ideas right now. Bits and pieces. There's an idea for a children's book series, but I don't know if I could ever actually write that. I barely even know any children. I don't know what they like. I don't know what's exciting or boring to them.

Then there's the Ontological Mystery. Essentially, there are people, who find themselves trapped in a place by persons unknown, who have to figure out the who, where, and why of the situation. I have this vague notion kicking around in my head. And I think it might do me some good.

Harnessing the Human Heart

I'm going to tell you something you may already know: I'm kind of weird.

Not in a "lol, look at me, I don't conform to society's expectations!" kind of way. More in a "just a bit… off" kind of way. People will probably refute that claim, but I'm looking at it from the inside, so I think I'd know.

The core of this is that I have a hard time relating to other people. Other real people. Fictional characters, those I get. Those I can empathize with. I was watching a show, and I was moved. I feel for these characters. They are written and portrayed in such a way that it pulls you into their lives and manipulates your emotions.

And I think I must be the villain of the piece, because I want to harness that power and use it for evil. I want to bend the emotions of my readers to my will. I want to make them laugh, and cry, and throw the book in anger. I want to move them.

The Shape of Tales to Come

Well, the next prompt in line is to describe the view out my window, and… it's dark. So we'll hold off on that for now. Where does that leave us then? Besides in the dark.

Right here, digging through my stored up stuff. In the dark.

A Slightly Less Technological Parallel Universe

Well, here we are again. I've been having some ideas about revisions for a story I wrote three years ago, but nothing concrete yet. Wheels are turning. The Wizard of Oz was involved. The story in question is actually on draft three, which is farther than anything else has made it. The problem with that one is that in the first two drafts, I found things that I didn't like, and wanted to change. But once I got to the third draft, I didn't know what should happen, only what shouldn't. But still, maybe we'll be able to rescue that one from the scrap heap eventually.

For now, we're just going to keep going with prompts. Today's is to pick an everyday object (again). Then, describe life without the item (before), and life with the item (after).

Such Wealth is Not in This Box

I have so many story ideas. Just little plot bunnies. They hop around in your head, refusing to leave until you scoop them up and do something with them. Problem is, I don't have anything more than a vague idea about anything. So I don’t know what the next project is.

I'd like to write some things to submit to the local college publication at the end of January, but again, no real ideas. I submitted "A History of Falling Off the Wall" last year, and they didn't want that one. So I need to learn from my mistakes and write something that is very much not that.

I need to take a page out of Oliver Queen's book and become someone else. Something else.

An Emotional Review

Is it Friday already? I had hoped I would have accomplished something by now.

I've been thinking lately about what sort of direction I should be, uh, writing in. there's some improvements I need to make in my overall writing style. Sure, I could just keep doing what I'm doing, but let's not forget the point of all this.

I started this blog nearly a year ago to chronicle my journey toward becoming a real writer. So far, I am no closer to that goal than I was when I started. So continuing to do the same old thing is not going to work.

Something has to change.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Well, NaNoWriMo is over. No more plotting. No more murdering. No more writing. And I have no idea what my next project will be. Therefore, I don't know what to blog about.

I definitely think that revision is something that need to revisit. I think I sort of threatened to revise something, but never actually did. The question then comes down to what to revise. "Revise the story you just wrote!" you might say. But I find that it's best to step away from a project for a while before diving back into it. You've just spent plenty of time with it. You have to let it breathe for a bit before you force into a new shape.

I have a lot of first drafts. I think that's probably a given at this point. I could choose any one of them to try to fix. The trick is how. I can usually tell that a certain scene, or character, or plotline isn't working. But I couldn't tell you what would work. Obviously, if I knew, I would have done that in the first place.

How Many Universes Fit on the Head of a Pin

All right. Universes. Within universes. That's what I promised.

I found this site recently. It's a universe. And if you open it up, it's full of galactic superclusters, which are full of galaxies. And you can keep going down, smaller and smaller, into star systems, into planets, into towns, into people.

Yes, into people. What they're made of. What they're thinking. What's in their pockets.

What? No! Who would do that?