I feel like my computer did this weekend. Frozen and unwilling to start but after much prodding and poking the old girl finally kicked in. She's working for now, but I'm uninspired.
I started a story yesterday, pushing and pulling words out of my brain, maneuvering them on the page finally closing the file after getting the beginning down. But my brain kept churning over the story and now I have several pages of dialogue written on a pad ready to move the story forward. So why am I not writing?
Does a story have to inspire you to make you want to finish it? It's a good story that I've started. All the elements are there but it just doesn't sing for me. It's a tale of revenge but then, revenge has been done to death. It needs a new spin, a choir of notes that will make it more than just a get-even story.
What about you? Do you just write the story, making sure to hit all the beats so your story is note perfect or do you wait until you hear the sax pulling those odd notes out of the air to change your story into something special?
Over the weekend a whole bunch of zines went live with their newest issues. Crooked, ThugLit, BTAP and The Flash Fiction Offensive all have new stories for your reading pleasure.
6 comments:
When I'm at a loss or feeling particularly uninspired, I unplug. I get out the pen and paper (comp book really) and start putting scratchy words down. It kick started my current short story and innumerable chapters of book #2. But, since you've already done that, here's a question: do you outline? When I wrote my first book (it seemed so easy back then), I sat in the middle of the floor, a pile of 4x6 index cards and a pen, closed my eyes, and saw the movie in my head. I wrote down every scene. I didn't really have an ending but I had a third or a half. I kept at this until I had the story down on index cards. Then, each night, I wrote one scene but allowed the characters to speak to me and meander if necessary. In the end, I stuck to the script but it made each night of writing a breeze. I never had to ponder the empty page.
I outline in my head before I even put anything down on paper. Bits and pieces of scenes unfold and I jot down notes until something jells then I start writing. With this story I had a title and an idea that I got down, then I started writing dialogue. I know where I want to take the story but something doesn't feel quite right. And I can't seem to find the voice who wants to tell the story. Maybe once the voice comes the story will unfold.
I am with you in terms of a story that doesn't feel quite right. It's taken me longer NOT to write my second book than it took to write my first. I think I finally did discover the voice for my second book...and, yet, it remains unfinished. Guess I haven't yet.
I think finding the voice is the hardest part. My first "novel" is still in a file folder full of short stories. I know the whole story, how it should evolve, every character in the story and yet, the voice isn't there that can bring the whole thing together. Very frustrating.
When I wrote my first book, I got into a wicked zone and got finished in five months.
I found for about a year, it was almost impossible to get "inspired" for my second novel. Then I managed to do a brief outline and now i'm back on track.
As for a short story I'm currently working on, it's been easier to get inspired, simply because I write most of it with pen and paper, before transcribing it to the computer. I work on it wherever I can, and since the topic is simple (a walk through town), it's been ridiculously easy to get inspired/motivated.
I'm like Georgie B, I tend to write with pen/pencil and paper in a scribbler after a basic mental idea forms. I write my story in blocks though not in chronological order. The blocks all have a short phrase that is placed within a chart in a location I think it should go in the story. Sometimes at a later time when the manuscript is almost done and the blocks don't seem to be in just the right place, I can move them around in the chart in a modified version and then move those physical blocks within the manuscript itself. This helps to keep my plotting straight.
I didn't outline for the first manuscript, and I prepared a half-outline for the second manuscript knowing that more ideas will come as I continue to write. My characters tend to take the stories over and a new avenue, often working, opens up.
While doing some research on legends and folklore this afternoon I got a burst of energy and ideas which were soon noted down on paper.
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