Let’s start at square one. You’re sitting at your desk, kitchen table, park bench, table at Starbucks or some other familiar place and suddenly a light bulb goes off in your head. Maybe you hear a voice that nobody else hears, or you see the equivalent of a burning bush. You have an IDEA.
What do you do next? Do you furiously take notes before the inspiration disappears or goes to another table? Do you just sit and let the idea boil around in your head until you have enough information to actually begin the process?
You’ve now got a good handle on what it is. Do you have a scene or an idea? What? There’s a difference? The voice tell you it’s time to write about that time you…..fill in the blank. Did you fill in the blank with an incident or an idea for an entire book, screenplay or short story? The time you went skiing and fell off the ski lift is a great scene, but unless it caused an avalanche and you survived for a week without food, water, or the Internet it’s probably not a book etc.
Let’s break it down, no pun intended. You’re on the ski lift, it shakes, shimmers and dumps you to the snowpack some thirty feet below. Now what? Do you plan out what you’re going to do next or do you just hit the snow and let the story unfold? Plodding or Plotting.
I know writers who will start their project the day they buy their ski outfit and plan the ski weekend. They know what color the boots are, the size of the chairs on the lift and the name of the operator of the ski lift because he looked like Uncle Charlie. They can tell you what they thought about as they dropped to the snow, how long they were buried and how they dug out using only their hands and a granola bar they brought as a snack. Those are Planners.
Plodders, usually like me, jump on the ski lift, admire the ski bunnies in line, fall head first into the snow and wonder what I’ve gotten myself into and how am I going to get out as I hear the roar of the avalanche rumbling down the mountain in my direction. I’ll sit under the snow and wonder how I’m going to get out and then I’ll start digging. I may dig in the wrong direction and bury myself deeper in the snow for a bit but I usually find the right direction and get out. There are very few holes you dig that you can’t get out of. Sometimes the best way to get out of a hole is to stop digging.
Once I reach the surface, I have to look around and see where I am and what I need to do. Do I have to spend a week walking through the snow? Maybe I find a cabin. Is it abandoned or filled with…fill in the blanks who try to do what with or to me? Do I escape or join them? Sometimes when I sit down to write I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to write about, where I’m going or what I’m going to do when I get there.
Plodding works for me but I can see how it would drive some people crazy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go write….something.
PS. I was just notified that DANCING IN THE DARK is one of 10 finalist for the Georgia Author of the Year Award in the mystery category. The awards will be presented on 16 June. The book is the first in the Max Maxwell series. The second book, SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY was released on 7 April. The awards will be presented on 16 June.
Paul Sinor
All books Available @ amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Paul-Sinor/e/B001KCUYRQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1523542653&sr=8-1
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