Monday, June 17, 2013

New Ideas

Probably obvious by now that I've been on vacation. It was family obligation, mainly, but was not without its good moments. Like being chased on a national park trail by a moose!

 

Anyways, I'm back and getting back into my work/routine. This morning I had a thought. A really great one. I was thinking about all those fantasies that I constantly have about how I would like my life to be. I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks about how I could have been this, I could have been that. But for specific reasons I am not this or that. Mostly because putting energy into becoming this or that sort of person would mean less energy spend on becoming a novelist. So I decided to take all those fantasies and put them into character creation.

So I did a little free writing. And now I think I have a spy novel series that is blooming. Sure, it will need a lot of work and research and perhaps a little pen name (branding, darling, branding) but I think I have a viable idea on my hands.

That's one of the things I love about writing fiction the most. I don't really need to have regrets in life. Because any choice that I regret I can just write about. Again proving that fiction is a better medium for exploring reality and learning about reality than non-fiction will ever be. Narrative, when left open to possibility, is so freeing.

Of course, this does put me in mind of a problem. Every how-to fiction writing book that I have read always has a chapter or section on 'how to generate plot ideas.' That is never my problem. In the past month I have come up with a novel idea, a series idea (as stated above) and a short story idea. Ideas are constantly coming to me. I think deeply enough about myself and about the world at large to be able to make subtle connections that can turn into wider stories. High level thinking is never a difficulty. What is difficult is the follow through. Not just the follow through but the details. The nitty gritty. I can't see the trees for the forest and other aphorisms.

Thankfully, there are tools. This writing course is helping me to refine details. To pick them out. And NaNoWriMo, every November, helps with the follow through. I really can't wait until November. I have been in the habit lately of writing at least 1000 words a day. But there is something about November. Because the goal is not just writing 1000 words of any sort of fiction -- freewriting -- it is 1667 words a day of a particular novel. A little more structured. And there is something about the progress bar and the promise of a certificate at the end of the month that is just so compelling to my video-game trained mind.

Ok I'm out. Bye!