Well... the first story sucks. It always sucks as far as I'm concerned, but this is suckier than normal. I don't even know if it has any redeeming features.
The one I'm working on now reads more like an abbreviated book and I don't need that given the books I've already written and need to work on to send off.
Yep. The Muse is back in town and ready to rumble, demanding new stuff, ignoring works-in-progress and not caring a jot. That'll teach me let her out on her own.
I don't suppose it's a bad thing, either. After concentrating on so much other stuff, it's nice to get back to the fantasy worlds. And that's the thing. For the whole of May, while travelling, not one story idea popped into my head. Not. One. And I didn't notice!
That is scary in itself, but I still didn't pick up on it when I came home. Nope, just spent time showing off photos and compiling logical stuff into a database. For most of June, I've been doing this project and it's finally done, but still no ideas, even though I planned a month-long write-fest.
It's one of my worst nightmares to think my imagination might fail me, that years of hard work and the helpless need to write was... gone; stolen while I busy elsewhere. I trusted that ideas would always be there for me, that all I had to do was listen to a conversation, read a book, watch a TV program, or even stare at strange clouds and the spark would be there; the kernel of an idea would coalesce the bloom into thousands of words.
Now I know that not to be, quite, true. But it's like coming back from ill health or memory loss. I can't force it; I can only wait and give it a prod every now and then.
What I want to do is bring all that focus and concentration to bear to bring it all back, but all I get is fuzzy images and pauses. Great. Big. Pauses.
But now the Muse is back. And you want to know something? While writing this and the story, I realise I've finished the story. Everything a reader needs to know, or to assume, is done. Yes, it could be longer; yes, I can expand it, and yes, a reader would be pissy about coming to their own conclusions, but it's done. So maybe the malaise is passing.
I think I'll go read a book to find some inspiration.
For those of you in America, Happy Independence Day!
1 comment:
Glad to hear the muse is back. A story a day marathon is probably just what you needed to kick the muse in her behind and get here back in gear. I just started working on my old story again today. It feels...weird to say the least, but also like coming home. I might post about it later.
Good luck on the rest of your stories.
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