Johnny Depp

"...especially for a writer, a creator, your best friend in the world is your imagination and the ability to create, and your worst enemy is your imagination, when you're plagued by too much thought and too much information - too much stuff going on in your head. But at the same time, it's your bread and butter, isn't it? So, yeah...rough gig..."

--Johnny Depp

So...um...yeah.

Greetings!

I know I've fallen off the internet for a while...there's an explanation for that. It mostly involves living, but...yeah.

Anyway, everyone knows NaNo's staring in a a week or two, which is exciting...and I have no idea what I'm going to be writing for it. Maybe I'm out of practice, or maybe it's writer's block, but...I really haven't got a clue what to write, and every idea I come up with...doesn't work.

Now, I'm not whining...much. One of the biggest reasons I haven't come up with anything is time. You see, I've gone and acquired myself a husbandboyfriend and a stepson who's 8 now, and this month I've been embroiled in helping him to construct a Halo Spartan costume out of old shin guards, knee pads, etc, spraypaint, duct tape and cardboard. I got promoted in August to HR Manager at the hotel I work for, which is a much more hectic position for not too much more money than I was getting before, and I'm often there later than I would like to be...but the upside (no more night audit for me!) is also something of a downside, because it means I can't write at work.

I've barely even crocheted anything.

Now, I'm not whining because I'm being all growed up and doing my job and being step-mum when one has no real experience being a mum is...different (and not something I'll ever give up), but...I miss writing. NaNoWriMo would be the best time to get back into writing, except for the one, pesky detail that I can't escape:

What The Hell Am I Going To Write?

When It All Comes Together

Athena, I was going to comment on your post, but Google hates me. So instead, I'm just going to mention here that I blame reality TV. Especially American Idol and its variants.

But that's not all that I want to talk about here. No, I'm here to brag a little bit and also, hopefully, share a little bit of infectious glee and get some stories. What I'm talking about is that glorious, shining moment when you first see the shape of your story.

Hopefully it's happened to all of us - a sudden revelation that explains to us how characters or objects are important, how the middle's going to hold up or how the ending is going to play out, what a certain character's motivations are, or just what the theme is (which can help you make decisions about everything else). Whatever it is, it's that corner piece in the puzzle that makes all the others seem to just slot into place with ease. After this realisation, your plot begins to make sense, and your story becomes a coherent whole. You finally know where you're taking it, or rather where it's taking you, and now you have a road map. And all that's left to do is write it.

Or maybe that's just me. Since I'm a bit of a pantser, I tend to start at the beginning with a clear idea of how it should end - but no idea of why the ending seems to work so well or is so important - and a few major events for the middle. Then I write until I get stuck. Then I go looking for inspiration and waste hours and hours and hours on the internets. I'm getting better, though - I used to waste years on the internets when I got stuck. My daily writing quota is helping.

When I get really, truly stuck, though, when my enthusiasm for a project is scraping mud off of the bottom of the ocean and I want to give all of my characters a ding alongside the ear, when I'm seriously considering moving on to the next project but for all the time and effort I've invested in the current one, that's when I go out and mow the lawn. Or shovel snow. Or sweep and mop all of the floors. Something mindless and menial, that will occupy my body and leave my mind free to wander, to connect the dots on its own without me sticking more information into it or tweaking everything it offers up. Usually, I find I know what I'm doing from the very start on projects with any amount of staying power. I just usually don't tell myself.

This happened to me recently. My apocalyptic urban epic fantasy with the elves and stuff has had two major revisions recently, and I was quite pleased with where it was going, until just a little while ago. Then I got mired in apathy and couldn't quite seem to dislodge myself. Finally, I gave up and read a quite excellent book on plot instead. (It was "Plot", by Ansen Dibell, if anyone's wondering, and while it would likely have confused someone just starting out, I think I knew what she was talking about when she wandered off into the vaguely mystical aspects of writing.) The book was very inspiring, actually, and helped me realise that I was trying to write it from the viewpoint of the wrong character.

But it wasn't Ansen Dibell (and yes, that's a pen name) who made the whole thing cohere for me. No, that was going out to mow the lawn and giving my subconscious time to throw up that brilliant flash of light that made the whole thing make sense. I realised that a revelation that I thought was going to be quite important and part of the endgame was actually necessary for the middle, and not as important as I thought it was. Suddenly, the whole story made a lot more sense, and I realised what I was really trying to say.

So what I'm wondering is, do you guys get those flashes of light too? Or do you actually outline? If so, how do you figure out what's going to happen in your middle, and how do you decide what's going to be important beforehand? Does the story ever change shape while you're writing it? What is your favourite part of the writing process? Share, please!

Prompts - Rules and Prompt Number 1

Since there was a favorable reaction to the idea of prompts, I figured I should go ahead and post the first one.

The Rules...uuummmmm....

- So we know what it is when you post, the title of the post should include which prompt it was.

E.g: Snazzy Story Title - Prompt 1.

And tags/labels - each prompt should have it's own numeral (this one's prompt 1), so when you post, you should include the label/tag for the original prompt in case anyone forgets what it is. And, of course, if you post a prompt of your own, keep track of which one it is in the sequence...

- Time...take what you need. We can have some prompts that are time sensitive, but - especially because Athena's internet access is sporadic - I think the majority of them should be a 'complete as you will' sort of thing. If anyone does post one with a time limit, of course, please mention it in the post.

- As for what...write whatever you want! Poems, short stories, long stories, scripts... Like with the time limits, I won't squash anyone's inspirations. Again, if you want to have a specific limit put on your prompt, mention it when you post it.

I'm fairly certain that's all of it...rating etc. This probably won't be a problem at all, though I should mention if, for any reason, there's überly* graphic anythings, you might want to point that out lest it come as an unwanted surprise to anyone.

If you do have a rating, please include it in the title of whatever your response is.

E.g: Snazzy Story Title - PG-13 - Prompt 1

I figure sticking with the Fictionpress ratings is a good idea, since everyone here knows what they are. I hope. >:)

Other than that...here's the first prompt:



Go nuts!

* yes, I know "überly" is not a word