Writer's Block
I have read much about writer's block. They typical anecdote of the block is that they have few or no ideas. For me it is never that. I never ever run out of ideas, I get ideas like a dog picks up fleas. My block comes from either too many ideas, or it stems from confusion about which angle to pursue these ideas. Sometimes both.
The only working method I have found is too write something simple. Much of a novel is a collection of complicated ideas made simple by the narrative. So with that in mind, I need to get my gears moving. The only problem now is that even simple ideas want to be big. No matter how small I start out with a specific idea, that ideas hit the next domino. What should be a simple line, becomes a progression of more and more complicated twists and turns and patterns.
So now I need a new method. Once that draws a complex pattern, yet at the same time can resist growing into something much larger. To do this I am going to explore a very small corner of the Other World that I am building. One that, by the time the main narrative can kick in, has already disappeared; it's component parts stripped, it's peoples put away into the cubby holes that they evolved from, the need for it, all but gone. Tragic, poignant, but a complete story from start to finish.
The only working method I have found is too write something simple. Much of a novel is a collection of complicated ideas made simple by the narrative. So with that in mind, I need to get my gears moving. The only problem now is that even simple ideas want to be big. No matter how small I start out with a specific idea, that ideas hit the next domino. What should be a simple line, becomes a progression of more and more complicated twists and turns and patterns.
So now I need a new method. Once that draws a complex pattern, yet at the same time can resist growing into something much larger. To do this I am going to explore a very small corner of the Other World that I am building. One that, by the time the main narrative can kick in, has already disappeared; it's component parts stripped, it's peoples put away into the cubby holes that they evolved from, the need for it, all but gone. Tragic, poignant, but a complete story from start to finish.