Always Something There To Rewind Me
crossposted from Lee Edward McIlmoyle's blog
Yes, the title is deliberate. It’s a subheading I’m using for a story I’m trying to make myself finish this morning. It’s been a very steep rock face for weeks. I know how the story goes, and I still don’t know how to write it. Peculiar form of writer’s block called Cantlookatthescreenitis. It causes the words on the screen to dance around and refuse to sit still, so I can’t focus on the page in front of me. It’s exhausting just plunking a few words down. Stupid, really. I suspect paid pros would just call it Assinthechairitis, but I have no problem sitting down to work. I just have trouble making the work happen. Depression? Possibly.
Anyway, the story is called Dream Job, and it’s part of a short story collection called The Back Roads of Limbo. The story has been around for almost a decade. I’ve been trying to add a few sections to it to give people some new fiction, and to demonstrate that the story does continue. I plan on doing a full length, interactive graphic novel called Dreamtropolis Fallen to tell the full story, although it may take me some considerable time. If I had artists that could do the graphics for me, I’d probably go ahead and start the project, but as I’m doing the art myself, I’m trying to get a block of time where I can focus on doing the layout and such first, which really requires that I complete the script. I figure it will have to wait another year or two, as I have a couple of projects lined up ahead of it. Still, I look forward to telling Jenna and Morgan’s tale. It’s been a long time coming.
I have one other short story that also needs to be finished before I can finally release the book; a story called Winterlude, which I’ve been trying to complete for a handful of years now. It dates back almost as far as Dream Job, and features Jeannie Kinneman and her boyfriend, the redoubtable Sterling Carcieri, Bartonville’s premier resident private detective, having a nice Christmas dinner together. They solve a case together without leaving her apartment. My problem is, I haven’t quite figured out the solution myself, because I did it wrong and started from the start, rather than figuring out the finish and working backwards. Rookie mystery writing mistake. But until I get that hammered out, I’m stuck. It’s weighing on me pretty heavily. I’m sure I’ll have the answer soon. I can feel it approaching. Just not here yet.
I sort of feel that I need to get the short story out of the way before I can get back to work on The Uninvited Guest, Sterling’s original mystery.
That’s been in the works for a long time, and I really want to get it done, so I’ve pushed it up ahead of a couple of projects I wanted to work on first. I’m debating working on it while or shortly after I square away The Art of Words, my languishing first interactive graphic novel about Trina Magrethe, her world’s first psychoanalyst, trying to solve a mystery or two of her own.
I think that’s probably enough for today. Any questions? Any answers? Would anyone like a mint?
Lee.
Yes, the title is deliberate. It’s a subheading I’m using for a story I’m trying to make myself finish this morning. It’s been a very steep rock face for weeks. I know how the story goes, and I still don’t know how to write it. Peculiar form of writer’s block called Cantlookatthescreenitis. It causes the words on the screen to dance around and refuse to sit still, so I can’t focus on the page in front of me. It’s exhausting just plunking a few words down. Stupid, really. I suspect paid pros would just call it Assinthechairitis, but I have no problem sitting down to work. I just have trouble making the work happen. Depression? Possibly.
Anyway, the story is called Dream Job, and it’s part of a short story collection called The Back Roads of Limbo. The story has been around for almost a decade. I’ve been trying to add a few sections to it to give people some new fiction, and to demonstrate that the story does continue. I plan on doing a full length, interactive graphic novel called Dreamtropolis Fallen to tell the full story, although it may take me some considerable time. If I had artists that could do the graphics for me, I’d probably go ahead and start the project, but as I’m doing the art myself, I’m trying to get a block of time where I can focus on doing the layout and such first, which really requires that I complete the script. I figure it will have to wait another year or two, as I have a couple of projects lined up ahead of it. Still, I look forward to telling Jenna and Morgan’s tale. It’s been a long time coming.
I have one other short story that also needs to be finished before I can finally release the book; a story called Winterlude, which I’ve been trying to complete for a handful of years now. It dates back almost as far as Dream Job, and features Jeannie Kinneman and her boyfriend, the redoubtable Sterling Carcieri, Bartonville’s premier resident private detective, having a nice Christmas dinner together. They solve a case together without leaving her apartment. My problem is, I haven’t quite figured out the solution myself, because I did it wrong and started from the start, rather than figuring out the finish and working backwards. Rookie mystery writing mistake. But until I get that hammered out, I’m stuck. It’s weighing on me pretty heavily. I’m sure I’ll have the answer soon. I can feel it approaching. Just not here yet.
I sort of feel that I need to get the short story out of the way before I can get back to work on The Uninvited Guest, Sterling’s original mystery.
That’s been in the works for a long time, and I really want to get it done, so I’ve pushed it up ahead of a couple of projects I wanted to work on first. I’m debating working on it while or shortly after I square away The Art of Words, my languishing first interactive graphic novel about Trina Magrethe, her world’s first psychoanalyst, trying to solve a mystery or two of her own.
I think that’s probably enough for today. Any questions? Any answers? Would anyone like a mint?
Lee.