Are You Thinking Outside the Box?

In my quest to overcome my extreme and quite aggravating writers block, I’ve been searching through my writing links. This in hopes that immersion into the “writers” realm will inspire my characters to break through the mental walls of my brain.

During the journey I ran across a great list of Potential Cliche Story Concepts. Strange Horizons created and maintains this list. As I read through the expansive content I found my head bobbing in agreement. Strange Horizon editors/participants put together a thorough, well worded description of “the same old hat”.

Oddly enough, I think this list really triggered my inspiration to explore some unique concepts. My writers mold is in hand and I’m ready to break it on the ground.

Wish me luck, and good luck to you all on breaking your own molds.

Just Can’t Find the Words

It’s all there….brewing in my brain. I just can’t find the right creative circulation to write it down. There are just times, I guess, that a writers needs to let it simmer and brew.

And only when it’s boiling over will it come out, in a mass of energy and creative mania, into pc or onto paper.

But I’ll be honest…it’s causing a little mental fragmentation. I’m started to feel like several other people live in my head.

Phew! Unstuck!

Phew! Crisis averted. Yesterday evening I spent an hour trying the advice of Cliff, and let any idea flooding my head out on paper. (Yes, I revert back to paper when I’m stuck. It helps reset my thoughts and focus…a topic for another time, I think.) That led to a couple story ideas (including a twist on Little Red Riding Hood’s fable and a Shakespeare story). It also helps trigger some scenes for other shorts in the queue (Alien Ghost Ship, Damarian’s Voyage, and Sorcerer’s Carnival).

Thank you Cliff, the tactic worked and was much appreciated.

After my brain was a little less jumbled, I focused on Galileo’s Chapter 12. It’s an important transition chapter in the storyline and has to be done with a balance between her emotions as a grieving sister and her sense of duty as a soldier. In my original draft she was focused too solely on the grieving sister role. There was too much telling and not enough showing. And I grazed over the vital action scenes that leads to an important decision for her later on.

In my revisions last night, I focused on fleshing out her emotional responses to the news her sister is missing in action. It required cutting out 12-14 paragraphs of emotional “telling”. The experience was draining and left me a little emotional myself. This is because, to assist, I thought about losses in my own life and the responses I felt. It was difficult and brought back a lot of memories that, today, aren’t getting boxed back up easily.

With my focus on the emotional aspect, last night I just identified the action scenes. I jotted down what needed to happen and the results. Today I’ll work on fleshing those scene’s out. I might pause for an hour or so to do some photography. It might heal my emotional state a bit.

Writer’s Block or Fighting the Flow?

Did I work on Sorcerer’s Carnival like I said I would last night? Nooooo….instead, I came down with a major case of writer’s block. I stared at the manuscript, the one I scoured over the day before until forcing myself to bed, and did nothing.

What happened? What caused this? I laid in bed last night and fretted over the situation. However, on the way to work this morning, something clicked. During that blank stand-off with Sorcerer’s, I kept thinking about Nettie from Galileo Wars.

Did I misdiagnose myself last night? Was it truly writer’s block, or was I just fighting the directional change of my creative thoughts?

Well, I’m going to test it out tonight and try to focus on Galileo Wars. Wish me luck!