the easy part
I admit that I haven't done much actual lately. Most of the reasons are personal - there are times in life when you just can't write, ya know? But then early last week I sat down at my computer one night and it just flowed out of me. I had to make myself stop so I could have some hope of getting to work on time the following morning. OK, excellent, I'm back, I can finally get some writing done.
No such luck. Just two days later I came down with a lousy cold and haven't had a stick of creative energy in my since. Or any other type of energy, for that matter.
BUT. I was lying abed with aching head this afternoon, staring at the ceiling, thinking of whatever, when the usual flotsam and jetsam of random thoughts coagulated into something that sounded suspiciously like a story. Or at least the seed of one. I thought it over for a minute - yes, that could work, ok, that's pretty intriguing, wow!
I dashed over to the computer and opened up the trusty Story Idea file. I don't know if other writers have one of these, but you probably should consider it if you don't. It's a big list of ideas for short stories, for novels, or for elements of other stories. Now, my list has dozens of entries in it already. Some of them are pretty good and I really want to get around to them one of these days. Others need fleshing out. Still others would work in the context of some larger narrative. And there are some that no longer hold my interest at all.
Today's idea was pretty intriguing - but it would need a lot of fleshing out, and it's definitely not genre, so it would be more difficult to write. I don't always give names to my ideas, but after a moment's reflection I named this one Athena: it's about a woman who's almost perfect, and the idea came to me while I was having a headache. Heh.
For me, coming up with ideas for stories is the easy part. Planning them, nurturing them, writing them, bringing them to fruition - that's where I come up short. In addition to my poor attention span it just seems like there's never enough time and I never have enough energy. Alas!
So what about everyone else? What's the easiest part of writing fiction? What's the hardest part?
No such luck. Just two days later I came down with a lousy cold and haven't had a stick of creative energy in my since. Or any other type of energy, for that matter.
BUT. I was lying abed with aching head this afternoon, staring at the ceiling, thinking of whatever, when the usual flotsam and jetsam of random thoughts coagulated into something that sounded suspiciously like a story. Or at least the seed of one. I thought it over for a minute - yes, that could work, ok, that's pretty intriguing, wow!
I dashed over to the computer and opened up the trusty Story Idea file. I don't know if other writers have one of these, but you probably should consider it if you don't. It's a big list of ideas for short stories, for novels, or for elements of other stories. Now, my list has dozens of entries in it already. Some of them are pretty good and I really want to get around to them one of these days. Others need fleshing out. Still others would work in the context of some larger narrative. And there are some that no longer hold my interest at all.
Today's idea was pretty intriguing - but it would need a lot of fleshing out, and it's definitely not genre, so it would be more difficult to write. I don't always give names to my ideas, but after a moment's reflection I named this one Athena: it's about a woman who's almost perfect, and the idea came to me while I was having a headache. Heh.
For me, coming up with ideas for stories is the easy part. Planning them, nurturing them, writing them, bringing them to fruition - that's where I come up short. In addition to my poor attention span it just seems like there's never enough time and I never have enough energy. Alas!
So what about everyone else? What's the easiest part of writing fiction? What's the hardest part?
posted by braun at 10:41 PM
3 Comments:
I have a notebook and a purple pen (for my purple prose) and when I am laying there drifting and a silly idea comes to mind, or I wake from a dream with an interesting bit in it, I can take notes. I actually look through a book, the file of ideas doesn't work for me.
Now, if I sit down and make an actual file for each idea and flesh it out a bit, that works.
But it sounds like it's basically the same principal!
Generally any sort of log is more similar than different, I'll give you that. I think the reason I prefer to have a hodgepodge of notes in an actual book si because you can find things that way visually. In an e-file they just get forgotten. But an individual file with a few ideas jotted down is more involved. I've actually processed the idea some, enough to take a few notes, write a scene.
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