Since I have some time away from all work, I thought I would do a little more writing. I figure I can spend an hour or so each day on a more substantial project than blogging. Becoming a smoother writer is one of the goals for the year, so let’s put some more effort into it.
Maybe a short story or something slightly longer than that is the idea. Perhaps a thousand words a day towards a self-contained story. For sure, I wouldn’t end with a finished product or even something I’d let someone read just yet, but it would be complete. Seems reasonable, right?
But what to write about?
I have a few ideas for stories I’d like to write. One is a day in the life of a man dealing with depression. One story, one day. I have a pretty good idea of the plot and how I’d like it to unfold, but I’m not sure I have the chops to piece it together so it reads genuine and believable. So that one is a no-go.
I’d also like to try my hand with a Young Adult fiction. I don’t have a solid story picked out yet, but the idea is interesting. Good ole Dave wrote a NaNoWriMo years ago in what I took to be this style. It was a fun read. I hope I’m not being judgemental here; I also think this genre doesn’t have to take itself too seriously, which could make it easier to put together. Which ironically is a stumbling block for me. I feel a compulsion to have the facts of my story be at least semi-plausible with no hand-waving or special science.
Then I thought about adding to the world I’ve already written about. I’ve been asked if I thought I would write the story of Brit, the wife of my protagonist. She’s a strong-willed character who didn’t get much screen time in my book. How did she become who she is? I don’t know if I have a whole novel worth of story for her, but maybe I have a two-part story of her youth and overall backstory.
This is the idea I started with yesterday. I got precisely 719 crappy words into it, and I’m stuck. It would seem that character development is not a tool in my box. This should not be surprising as I have no firm idea of my own character or why I am the way that I am. I have the ideas in my head; I don’t know how to turn the ideas into a story.
I’m planning on brute forcing my way through a few more days and hope it all starts to take its own form. That was one of the more exciting occurrences when writing the original book. The story and characters evolved as I was typing. I’d be writing a scene, and suddenly, Russ just made a decision I hadn’t been planning on. Things just happened on their own sometimes.
Wish me luck, folks.
Do you have a story you want to write?