After the Bloom (writerly thread)

[TxRad]

That intriguing story idea jumps out at you and you hurriedly get the first two or three pages down before you forget and then....

In my case it sits in the New Story folder until either my Muse gets interested again or I move it to the In Work folder. If she (my Muse) doesn't get off her horny and lazy ass, it soon goes in the Back Burner folder to make room for new stuff she gets interested in.

The reason this came up is, a few weeks ago, I had this great story idea. A single woman living in a large apartment building on a stormy night with the power off. She is scared of the storm and the dark. Add an old rotary phone and we have something. Four pages and a blank.

Ok, we let it sit until this morning. It's near the top of the list and it catches my eye, or the Muse's eye, whichever way you want to look at it. Now I'm up to 12 pages but it's taken a whole different turn than where I started. That's all right. It's still an interesting story. Actually, it's better than what I originally had planned.

So, what's the problem, you ask. Well, it happens this way a lot. Maybe I start to many stories but the ideas sound so good at the time. What do you think and do you have similar problems?

It's not the way I particularly want to write but it is a way.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Oh, hell yeah. I have one story that died on me just as one of the two guys asked his partner to go bareback. BIG EMOTIONS!!! Not where I wanted a stroker to go.

Or another one, that was going to be a ghost/mystery story, and now wants to have a Romance stuck into it. Which makes it a triangle, what with the ghost, or else a threesome, with the ghost, at the end.

Or your basic groupie-fucks-rock-star story. I have four different versions of that thing in my files-- each one a different scenario. None of them finished.

I could go on...

 

[TxRad]

Oh, hell yeah. I have one story that died on me just as one of the two guys asked his partner to go bareback. BIG EMOTIONS!!! Not where I wanted a stroker to go.

Or another one, that was going to be a ghost/mystery story, and now wants to have a Romance stuck into it. Which makes it a triangle, what with the ghost, or else a threesome, with the ghost, at the end.

Or your basic groupie-fucks-rock-star story. I have four different versions of that thing in my files-- each one a different scenario. None of them finished.

I could go on...

Oh good, I'm not as crazy as I thought I was.

I have one story about a drug runner that almost runs of fthe road when he falls asleep at the wheel. He ends up stopping in the pull off area in front of a country cemetery. When he gets back on the road, he almost runs over a strange woman in the middle of the road.

I have two versions of this. One where he goes north and it's a freaky semi ghost story. The other version he goes south and it's a romance.

 

[jomar]

Not at all. I haven't revised Chase Cooder yet. I've got a group sex story and a BDSM relationship story in the file waiting, waiting, waiting...

 

[TxRad]

Not at all. I haven't revised Chase Cooder yet. I've got a group sex story and a BDSM relationship story in the file waiting, waiting, waiting...

Yeah but I've got close to a hundred in the Back Burner file alone.

 

[sophia jane]

With one exception (Seeing Sophie), if I don't finish a story soon after starting it, it never gets finished. Which sucks because I think I have more unfinished stories than finished ones.

 

[jomar]

Yeah but I've got close to a hundred in the Back Burner file alone.

Well then, I must give you props for being far more prolifically...uh, something.

 

[TxRad]

With one exception (Seeing Sophie), if I don't finish a story soon after starting it, it never gets finished. Which sucks because I think I have more unfinished stories than finished ones.

I understand that, but don't give up on the ld ones. Put them where you can see them when you bring the list of stories up. Some of my best stories have come from pecking at one here and there until one of them takes off. "Bound" is a perfect example. It was written in bits and pieces over a two year period.

Well then, I must give you props for being far more prolifically...uh, something.

Yeah, but good and prolific don't always go hand in hand.

I have close to 80 stories posted here and another 50 that haven't been posted. Then the unfinished ones and the twenty chapter book. Plus the three other partially finished books. All in the last ten years.

I've also found out the hard way that my short pieces don't do as well as the long ones over time.

 

[jomar]

Yeah, but good and prolific don't always go hand in hand.

True, but you're doing something quite right, judging by all the bright red Hs and the smattering of blue Ws.

 

[neonlyte]

Several... ok... a dozen, or twenty. Some I'll come back to. The weirdest is a romance that takes place a five second intervals... every time the guy reaches the Toll Booth. It's a bastard to nail down but I know there's a long short story in there.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Several... ok... a dozen, or twenty. Some I'll come back to. The weirdest is a romance that takes place a five second intervals... every time the guy reaches the Toll Booth. It's a bastard to nail down but I know there's a long short story in there.

*hands you the hammer*

I want to read this!

Well then, I must give you props for being far more prolifically...uh, something.

"Prolifically unproductive" perhaps?

 

[jomar]

"Prolifically unproductive" perhaps?

Shhh. I was going to say prolifically discerning.

 

[TxRad]

Ok, you two

I'm still here ya know.

The correct answer is prolific procrastinator.

 

[Stella_Omega]

This reminds me of "Aunt Julia and The Scriptwriter" by Mario Vargas Llosa.

It has a funny, three-part structure. One part tells of his romance with his widowed Aunt-by-marriage, another tells about the strange and bitter man who writes several scripts per day for the local radio station's soap operas.

And the third part of the story is this young author telling us about the ideas he's had for stories. he gives us the premise, and where he thought he might go with it-- and then tells us that he never did write it down...

 

[starrkers]

Hmm. let's see:

there's the girl abducted by the obsessed stalker that hasn't gone much past her initial realisation of being trapped, with a couple of loose scenes of interaction with her captor that don't link up yet;

The guy sitting on the bonnet of his car at the end of the airport runway, watching planes take off. He sits there often, the security guards know him and leave him alone. What they don't know this time is there's a girl in the trunk. She may or may not be dead. I haven't decided yet so the story stalls;

The partially written letter accusing the SO of infidelity and the planned retribution

The Supernatural fanfic that peters out with Dean not arriving back at the car after he and Sam save the girl from the monster...

The conclusion of Unnatural Progression, currently stalled because I haven't figured out who lives or how.

My modern take on Bluebeard, so far only a description of him.

The fourth and final instalment of Princess Angelina's adventures for the Enchanted Twelve chain (not a word on paper yet, but several conflicting ideas floating around the head)

The couple flirting with anal sex for the first time...

The Nude Day story involving a much dreaded school reunion...

And that's just the ones I can remember without looking at the folder.

 

[Stella_Omega]

The Nude Day story involving a much dreaded school reunion...

It's that bad dream again, you never grow out of it...

 

[TxRad]

Hmm. let's see:

there's the girl abducted by the obsessed stalker that hasn't gone much past her initial realisation of being trapped, with a couple of loose scenes of interaction with her captor that don't link up yet;

The guy sitting on the bonnet of his car at the end of the airport runway, watching planes take off. He sits there often, the security guards know him and leave him alone. What they don't know this time is there's a girl in the trunk. She may or may not be dead. I haven't decided yet so the story stalls;

The partially written letter accusing the SO of infidelity and the planned retribution

The Supernatural fanfic that peters out with Dean not arriving back at the car after he and Sam save the girl from the monster...

The conclusion of Unnatural Progression, currently stalled because I haven't figured out who lives or how.

My modern take on Bluebeard, so far only a description of him.

The fourth and final instalment of Princess Angelina's adventures for the Enchanted Twelve chain (not a word on paper yet, but several conflicting ideas floating around the head)

The couple flirting with anal sex for the first time...

The Nude Day story involving a much dreaded school reunion...

And that's just the ones I can remember without looking at the folder.

Several on that list sound very interesting. For the school reunion you might want to take a look at my High School Reunion story if ya want a view from and older POV. I ended up combining an anal story with my one and only try at pirate life. It got finished and posted quickly after that. It's in my sig line as Booty Pirate.

Maybe this will become an idea swapping thread.

Oh and one question, was the SO in the letter yours or just some bloke you conjured up?

 

[TxRad]

It's that bad dream again, you never grow out of it...

I went to my 40th and kept wondering who all those old people were and how come they knew me but i didn't have a clue.

They are talking about a 45th next year.

 

[starrkers]

It's that bad dream again, you never grow out of it...

Not quite. This one is a shake-up-th-straights version where they go to the fuddy duddy reunion ready for the Nude Day party elsewhere later in the evening... But I'll probably never finish it.

Several on that list sound very interesting. For the school reunion you might want to take a look at my High School Reunion story if ya want a view from and older POV. I ended up combining an anal story with my one and only try at pirate life. It got finished and posted quickly after that. It's in my sig line as Booty Pirate.

Maybe this will become an idea swapping thread.

Oh and one question, was the SO in the letter yours or just some bloke you conjured up?

A couple of them could turn into epics (well, epics for me - the longest I've got done so far is only three Lit pages). That may be what's holding me up - fear of a novel

The SO was conjured - I wanted it to be the bloke writing, but it started to turn into an interior monologue instead and then got girly and, well... It may turn into two different stories yet.

I think a lot of my problem with writing at the moment is I don't have a proper space. I'm sitting on the bed with a laptop and a remote keyboard. One day I'll have a real desk and a designated writing space, but there ain't no room for such luxuries here.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

TXRD I limit my writing to 500 words per day, per project. This keeps the story from wandering off the reservation. Plus I write the last chapter first.

 

[Iamcanadian28]

I know for myself I'm just starting into the writing craft, but I already have a ridiculous binder full of concepts, around 50 or so from short shorts, to very long novel length ideas. The big problem is I still have alot to learn about writing as I go and I have so much in my head and in the folder I'm desperately trying to get it on paper. My muse only lets me write what it wants me too and if I try to force something else it turns out as crap even if I already know the story cold.

 

[Iamcanadian28]

TXRD I limit my writing to 500 words per day, per project. This keeps the story from wandering off the reservation. Plus I write the last chapter first.

I like that idea about the 500 words, I know the other day I was writing a story and around 1000 words into it, I started to completely lose track of where I was and had to quit for the day.

 

[TxRad]

Not quite. This one is a shake-up-th-straights version where they go to the fuddy duddy reunion ready for the Nude Day party elsewhere later in the evening... But I'll probably never finish it.

A couple of them could turn into epics (well, epics for me - the longest I've got done so far is only three Lit pages). That may be what's holding me up - fear of a novel

The SO was conjured - I wanted it to be the bloke writing, but it started to turn into an interior monologue instead and then got girly and, well... It may turn into two different stories yet.

I think a lot of my problem with writing at the moment is I don't have a proper space. I'm sitting on the bed with a laptop and a remote keyboard. One day I'll have a real desk and a designated writing space, but there ain't no room for such luxuries here.

As of late I understand the no space thing. I do most of my writing during my down time at work, which there is plenty of. The problem now, is my daughter works with me and likes to look over my shoulder.

 

[TxRad]

TXRD I limit my writing to 500 words per day, per project. This keeps the story from wandering off the reservation. Plus I write the last chapter first.

I don't guess I've advanced that far. I still write in spurts of only a few lines to six or seven thousand words at a time. As for wandering off the reservation, some of my best stories have come about that way.

 

[TxRad]

I know for myself I'm just starting into the writing craft, but I already have a ridiculous binder full of concepts, around 50 or so from short shorts, to very long novel length ideas. The big problem is I still have alot to learn about writing as I go and I have so much in my head and in the folder I'm desperately trying to get it on paper. My muse only lets me write what it wants me too and if I try to force something else it turns out as crap even if I already know the story cold.

Muses are a bitch and mine is one of the worst ones around. I was going to suggest you pick one story and get it completely finished before you worry about another. Then you brought the Muse into it.

My first story turned into a 286 page novel that I wrote on exclusively until I finished it. It took over a year and I immediately started the second book in the series. The third still languishes somewhere in the Back Burner file.

Lots of luck and welcome to the AH, if I haven't said so before.