I'd meant to post everyday this month for NaNo but I ended up moving on the 1st this month and have been neglecting my writing. Plus, since I just moved to this new house the internet didn't get set up until today.
My mom and dad have decided to try getting back together and see how things go so we've moved into the house dad has rented. So far so good. I've already got most of room brought over and set up except for my books and book cases. Me and my dad are going to build some custom walnut bookcases this weekend to fit around my closet. They're going to be awesome :D And my room is finally a decent size so that I can fit a coffee table and armchair in here. It's really great, and my parents seem to be getting along fine. There hasn't been arguing or anything so far.
I only got to write about 1400 words at midnight on the 1st. I was writing on some story that was from the POV of a dog but I have since given up on that story. I just wasn't feeling it and had no solid direction to go in.
The day before yesterday I was thinking about what story I should write on, if I should start on the Chronicles or The Journalist or Sun Touched again, or if I should start writing on one of two ideas I came across while digging through some old documents searching for something new to write. They were some pretty good ideas too, one of which I was kinda excited about but when I opened a fresh new page and it was time to start writing, something completely and utterly different popped into my head.
It only started out as a couple sentences but as I kept writing the story evolved into something more solid, with a direction. I've since gone with it.
I've written a total of 3342 words on this story so far and am still intrigued by it. It is unlike anything I've thought of so far. It's about a woman named Emily who marries a man she doesn't love and her husband becomes increasingly resentful of this fact over the years until he abandons her in a foreign country with little money. Emily, who has lived in luxury all her life and believes herself to be the most beautiful and wealthy of women, now has to learn to make a living for herself and ends up dirt poor and living on the streets.
So far so good I think! I hope this idea turns into a good story. I imagine the world that she comes from similar to Victorian but the country she is left in is something completely different. A different language, a different culture, she'll have to relearn everything.
And there's going to be magic in here somewhere. Probably not as dominant as it usually is in my stories but I have some ideas for things that happen in later.
So, I'm painfully behind on my word count, only 4772 so far, but I plan to catch up!! I can do this! :D
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Friday, November 9, 2012
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The Troll
Inspiration for stories is strange. I mean, it can come from anywhere. Or nowhere. Half the time I've no idea where an idea actually originated from, cause it's just so strange or something it just makes me go 'O.O?' Other times I see this tv show or movie and an idea strikes. But most the time, I don't have a clue what my brain is doing.
It's like there's some kind highly unintelligent troll in my head that just grabs random things and squishes them together. Then just chucks these blobs of randomness at me, expecting me and my muse to do something with it.
I usually write most of these unusable ideas down, just in case.
And then the troll goes back to work.
The troll seems to work best when you're being entertained by a good book or show, using the information it's being presented with to put together some of the more usable blobs. And those ideas that kind of seem pointless. . . Well, he just couldn't find much material for use at the moment.
But those rare strikes of genius, the ones us writers live for, it's as if the troll had been working on a masterpiece, and sometimes this only occurs once in the trolls life. The troll isn't usually apt for genius.
The troll is more commonly known for throwing together some vaguely recongnizeable blobs, sending it to you and then passing on to the muse who tries to get something out of it, and convinces you to write on it for awhile before you both realize the troll has fooled you.
And he's laughing at you.
But even though the troll is a small, dim, sometimes unsavory fellow he works really hard, doing the dirty work by putting together the base of a story idea, before giving it to you and your muse to work on. Without him, there'd be NO stories.
And even if he's laughing at you, it was still an idea that you learned from, and something he can use for better material.
Perhaps for that masterpiece he's working on in the basement.
Happy Thursday
:)
It's like there's some kind highly unintelligent troll in my head that just grabs random things and squishes them together. Then just chucks these blobs of randomness at me, expecting me and my muse to do something with it.
(The Troll)
And then the troll goes back to work.
The troll seems to work best when you're being entertained by a good book or show, using the information it's being presented with to put together some of the more usable blobs. And those ideas that kind of seem pointless. . . Well, he just couldn't find much material for use at the moment.
But those rare strikes of genius, the ones us writers live for, it's as if the troll had been working on a masterpiece, and sometimes this only occurs once in the trolls life. The troll isn't usually apt for genius.
The troll is more commonly known for throwing together some vaguely recongnizeable blobs, sending it to you and then passing on to the muse who tries to get something out of it, and convinces you to write on it for awhile before you both realize the troll has fooled you.
And he's laughing at you.
But even though the troll is a small, dim, sometimes unsavory fellow he works really hard, doing the dirty work by putting together the base of a story idea, before giving it to you and your muse to work on. Without him, there'd be NO stories.
And even if he's laughing at you, it was still an idea that you learned from, and something he can use for better material.
Perhaps for that masterpiece he's working on in the basement.
Happy Thursday
:)
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Characters
So, how do these strange people come into existence?
Some people say that they burst into their minds, demanding that their story be told. Others have carefully crafted their characters to fit into the plot. But this, of course doesn't speak for everyone. There are undoubtedly endless ways for characters to be created. Maybe he or she started as a mere notion of a person, just knowing that they really liked dogs or something. Or maybe you saw some random person and liked the way they looked or acted and wanted a character that mirrored that, and so started to work on this character, possibly without even a story in mind.
To me, I believe that characters are wonderful, sometimes strange things. They are moldable, but not overly so. They are undoubtably their own person and cannot be overly changed into you're ideal character because you simply can't. Just like you can't just change the way your next door neighbor is like.
And as for how I create them, well, I think that's putting it too strongly, cause it doesn't often feel like I created them. Sometimes, it's the character that comes to me first, I get a feeling of what they're like, what their background and circumstances are and a vague notion of what their story (plot) might be. Like they are a person I am just getting to know. But for some reason, the characters that come to me this way are the ones that are jotted down in a journal and then forgotten about.
But then there are the other characters. These ones are birthed from the idea of a plot or world I have been thinking about. It almost feels like the character is coming to me, saying that he is the character in that story I've been thinking about. These are the characters whose stories get written, unlike the others.
But even then, sometimes it's wrong. Sometimes, it seems like I'm forcing my character to be someone they're not. This makes them very hard to write. And as I stop and start writing these stories it's like they reveal themselves more and more before they finally become who they were supposed to be all along, not the image I had in the beginning, but something totally different and unexpected. For some reason I fight this sometimes, believing that if I change the characters attitude or opinion to something else they just won't be who they were supposed to be. In these instances, I'm usually always wrong.
But these characters, even though they were born from the story and world, these stories are hugely character driven. The story simply wouldn't work if that character was replaced with someone else or if any one thing about them were changed. In these stories the character is equally as important (sometimes more so) as the plot.
So, how are your characters created? Do the characters influence you're stories or the other way around? Are they closer to people or tools in your eyes?
Some people say that they burst into their minds, demanding that their story be told. Others have carefully crafted their characters to fit into the plot. But this, of course doesn't speak for everyone. There are undoubtedly endless ways for characters to be created. Maybe he or she started as a mere notion of a person, just knowing that they really liked dogs or something. Or maybe you saw some random person and liked the way they looked or acted and wanted a character that mirrored that, and so started to work on this character, possibly without even a story in mind.
To me, I believe that characters are wonderful, sometimes strange things. They are moldable, but not overly so. They are undoubtably their own person and cannot be overly changed into you're ideal character because you simply can't. Just like you can't just change the way your next door neighbor is like.
And as for how I create them, well, I think that's putting it too strongly, cause it doesn't often feel like I created them. Sometimes, it's the character that comes to me first, I get a feeling of what they're like, what their background and circumstances are and a vague notion of what their story (plot) might be. Like they are a person I am just getting to know. But for some reason, the characters that come to me this way are the ones that are jotted down in a journal and then forgotten about.
But then there are the other characters. These ones are birthed from the idea of a plot or world I have been thinking about. It almost feels like the character is coming to me, saying that he is the character in that story I've been thinking about. These are the characters whose stories get written, unlike the others.
But even then, sometimes it's wrong. Sometimes, it seems like I'm forcing my character to be someone they're not. This makes them very hard to write. And as I stop and start writing these stories it's like they reveal themselves more and more before they finally become who they were supposed to be all along, not the image I had in the beginning, but something totally different and unexpected. For some reason I fight this sometimes, believing that if I change the characters attitude or opinion to something else they just won't be who they were supposed to be. In these instances, I'm usually always wrong.
But these characters, even though they were born from the story and world, these stories are hugely character driven. The story simply wouldn't work if that character was replaced with someone else or if any one thing about them were changed. In these stories the character is equally as important (sometimes more so) as the plot.
So, how are your characters created? Do the characters influence you're stories or the other way around? Are they closer to people or tools in your eyes?
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