Pondering Choices...
I was recently thinking about my reduced drive to write short stories. I tracked this lack of inspiration all the way back to the time I started this blog. Now that made me wonder, had I not started this blog would I have written far more short stories?
It very easy to pull out a calculation. Something like, I have written about a 1000 posts in the past 3 years, about 400(actually much more) of those required genuine time and thought dedication (as in they werent photos/forwards/lyrics ect). Considering an average of about 1 page per post, that gives me about 400 pages of decent content. My average short story length is about 6 pages. That gives me 75 short stories!
Of course the calculation is pure bull shit(to put it frankly), Just coz I narrated a nice story about a girl's comments about my job or an interesting conversation I had a while back, doesn't mean that I would have written a short story of the same length.
So that brings us to a few more questions "What do i write stories about? Would I have written a story if I hadn't blogged about it?"
Well the answer is not simple actually, some of my experiences inspired a lot of my stories. Let me explain...
Now which post of mine, could I have converted into a story... hmmm... Since I am in the middle of one... how bout this one?
If I had not written this post and used the inspiration to write a story, the story might have gone something like this:
The protagonist would be a 30-35 year old journalist (I have a soft spot for journalists... its a long story). A man who has since an adolescent age wanted to be a writer, he started out writing stories and poems but since he got a job as a journalist in a local newspaper his creative pen has been running dry. (There we go established a similar situation)
The crisis faced by this man becomes clear as we slowly discover his attraction to a new intern at his office. The attraction seems to be mutual as she sees him as a charming and witty man. But one day she suddenly disappears... (the crisis) The man tries to contact her and despite the calmness of his colleagues believes something is wrong.
As the man searches for the girl he discovers striking similarity between her past and his. Choices she made remind him of his choices that changed his life, he slowly begins to realize that the closer he gets to her the higher probability of their lives imploding (complex I know) and then he makes a decision to stop perusing her.
The next day she is back in office and questions him as to why he stopped searching for her. As he answers her questions he realizes things about himself he has been a coward to admit all his life... (I would probably throw in a twist to the tale... something like she had planned it all along or she does not exist and this is all his pent up urge to write a thriller causing him delusions about people and places he interacts with)
----
I guess that would have been a decent short story... importantly it would have all the ingredients I like in my stories, thriller, subtle romance, philosophy, freedom, play on the human mind and of course the twist in the end.
That brings us back to the first question, Would I have written more short stories if I didnt blog this often... Well the answer is probably "yes" but considering the really poor readership for my stories(my blogs is much better) I think my ideas reach more people. Also I have been told that some of my stories make people fall asleep(yeah I am talking about you :P ), so this is all for the best in the end.
Honestly I would still like to write stories, they tend to have a longer shelf life than my blog posts. Most of my posts are read when they were just published (RSS is the culprit there) and very few even go past the last 10 posts. The stories on the other hand get a visitor every few weeks or so... And that makes me feel good :)
Anyway enough pondering for the day... the best solution for this is just to write more, I guess :P
It very easy to pull out a calculation. Something like, I have written about a 1000 posts in the past 3 years, about 400(actually much more) of those required genuine time and thought dedication (as in they werent photos/forwards/lyrics ect). Considering an average of about 1 page per post, that gives me about 400 pages of decent content. My average short story length is about 6 pages. That gives me 75 short stories!
Of course the calculation is pure bull shit(to put it frankly), Just coz I narrated a nice story about a girl's comments about my job or an interesting conversation I had a while back, doesn't mean that I would have written a short story of the same length.
So that brings us to a few more questions "What do i write stories about? Would I have written a story if I hadn't blogged about it?"
Well the answer is not simple actually, some of my experiences inspired a lot of my stories. Let me explain...
Now which post of mine, could I have converted into a story... hmmm... Since I am in the middle of one... how bout this one?
If I had not written this post and used the inspiration to write a story, the story might have gone something like this:
The protagonist would be a 30-35 year old journalist (I have a soft spot for journalists... its a long story). A man who has since an adolescent age wanted to be a writer, he started out writing stories and poems but since he got a job as a journalist in a local newspaper his creative pen has been running dry. (There we go established a similar situation)
The crisis faced by this man becomes clear as we slowly discover his attraction to a new intern at his office. The attraction seems to be mutual as she sees him as a charming and witty man. But one day she suddenly disappears... (the crisis) The man tries to contact her and despite the calmness of his colleagues believes something is wrong.
As the man searches for the girl he discovers striking similarity between her past and his. Choices she made remind him of his choices that changed his life, he slowly begins to realize that the closer he gets to her the higher probability of their lives imploding (complex I know) and then he makes a decision to stop perusing her.
The next day she is back in office and questions him as to why he stopped searching for her. As he answers her questions he realizes things about himself he has been a coward to admit all his life... (I would probably throw in a twist to the tale... something like she had planned it all along or she does not exist and this is all his pent up urge to write a thriller causing him delusions about people and places he interacts with)
----
I guess that would have been a decent short story... importantly it would have all the ingredients I like in my stories, thriller, subtle romance, philosophy, freedom, play on the human mind and of course the twist in the end.
That brings us back to the first question, Would I have written more short stories if I didnt blog this often... Well the answer is probably "yes" but considering the really poor readership for my stories(my blogs is much better) I think my ideas reach more people. Also I have been told that some of my stories make people fall asleep(yeah I am talking about you :P ), so this is all for the best in the end.
Honestly I would still like to write stories, they tend to have a longer shelf life than my blog posts. Most of my posts are read when they were just published (RSS is the culprit there) and very few even go past the last 10 posts. The stories on the other hand get a visitor every few weeks or so... And that makes me feel good :)
Anyway enough pondering for the day... the best solution for this is just to write more, I guess :P