generating story ideas

Visit Adventures in Writing to read my post about ways to generate story ideas.

will finish this darn story

By Wednesday. It’s a short story, entitled “The Watcher.”

Yes, I’m still “blocked.” But I’m finishing it anyway, even if it’s terrible in the end. Because really, it’s time to move on.

One thing about the current protagonist is that he reminds me of the protagonist of a story I wrote previously. Not the characterization, since they are drawn very differently, but the two characters are alike in their circumstances. Both this character and the earlier one are the respected advisors for their respective commiunities, both are experiencing alienation from the thing that is the source of their power, and out of fear, both are harboring a secret.

I wonder if it’s a common thing for a writer to come back to the same themes. And I wonder whether it’s best to just go ahead and write the stories that seem compelling, even if they are familiar in a way… or if it’s better to look for things to write about that are completely fresh.

not writing, only looking

I’m taking a break from writing this week and next week. I actually need to, as I’ve been feeling frustrated lately.

Instead, I’m trying to pay more attention to the things around me, things I normally pass by without a second glance or even an afterthought. And I’m taking my camera along. So…

In that spirit I’ve started a new photoblog, which I’m calling Postcards from a Small Town. The idea is just to post at least one picture every day of something that caught my eye in and around the small town where I live, and to do this without writing the story behind each photo.

I’ll be writing again in a little while. Right now I just want to look around and take some pictures. So please visit me in my small and very ordinary town.

writing space

Today I have a post up at Adventures in Writing about having a room of one’s own to write in.

don’t let this happen to you

Live and learn, they say.

A couple of days ago I was organizing the files on my computer, deleting duplicates and anything else I thought was just taking up space. Yeah, well. A folder called Recent Changes (or something like that) was full of duplicates of files that I’d recently changed. All the files that are important to me are documents and pictures, and they are are stored in Documents or Pictures. Makes sense, see?

So who needs a folder full of duplicate files? I deleted them all, the entire folder, sent them all to the recycle bin, which I then emptied.

Did I say they were duplicates? You know what’s coming, right?

So. I opened my Pictures folder. Surprise! Empty except for some picture files and clip art that I used months ago for work and one profile pic. But it wasn’t the disaster it could have been, as my pictures are still on my camera, so nothing was really lost there.

So. I opened the Documents folder. Incomplete short stories I’d been working on, gone. Novel revisions, thankfully, still there.

I’ll fast-forward through the part where I panic.

In the end, I downloaded some free trial file-recovery software, and with it I was able to peep back through time and memory into the dark heart of my computer’s dead and lost files. Lots of stuff is still in there, but with weird file names (oh, like $GRTYP099). It took a long time to figure this out.

Live and learn.

As it turns out, only one story is truly, irretrievably lost, and that’s because I attempted to recreate the beginning of the story on my own and I saved my pathetic progress under the same file name as the deleted file, which was then overwritten. At least, I think that’s what happened. I may rewrite this story, but if I do, it will be different from the original. Then again, I may not.

Now the mystery that I still haven’t solved is this: Why were my files not saved where I put them - in Documents and Pictures? Why did deleting them from Recent Changes (or whatever) make them disappear from the other folders?

on heroes and villains

Andrew Rosenberg over at The WriteRunner has a thought-provoking post about the quality that most distinguishes heroes from villains in fiction. He decides it’s something simpler than good vs. evil, and he uses examples from real life to show what he means.

It’s made me think about my own heroes and villains from a new perspective, and even more so since I’m writing a truly villainous (by this definition) protagonist and wondering if this automatically drains the appeal from the story.

the dream-story

Last Saturday I wrote a post about dreams over at Adventures in Writing. I was wondering whether dreams are ever a valuable source of inspiration or ideas for writers of fiction. This post was prompted by a dream I’d had the day before, which I thought (and still think) might be the seed of a short story.

Well, I haven’t written this story. Not yet.

But I was using the character in a free-writing exercise last night, to see if I could generate a story with more “sense” to it than the typical dream-story. The answer is, Yes.

I’ll be outlining it today, and starting to actually write it tonight or tomorrow. It’s a fantasy, by the way, and the protagonist is not particularly likable. Risky, I know.

I’ll let you know what I think of the final result, hopefully by the weekend.

Anyone else ever rework a dream into fiction? What was the result?

revisions

My revisions end up being longer than the original, though I know many writers say that a draft always need to be cut significantly. I do cut, but I add more than I cut, apparently.

I’d like to hear from other writers. Is your revised material on average longer or shorter than your original draft?

helium

I joined Helium this week. If you don’t know Helium, it’s a site that pays writers to write and post articles in competition with other writers.

I’ve written a few articles so far, but I haven’t submitted any creative writing over there.

I’m only now getting used to the site, and so as of now I don’t have an opinion.

market response times

I just withdrew a short story from a market that had been holding it for 14 months. Fourteen months! Now, while I do understand that editors are busy, and I certainly know that they are in no way begging writers for stories, I still think that response times of months are too long, response times of six to twelve months are inconsiderate, and anything over a year is just plain crazy.

In my view it is unfair is for a market with a typically long response time to insist that writers not send in simultaneous submissions. In the time it takes one slow publication to respond to a submission, the story could be out making its rounds at five different publications. However, I have not sent in a story silmultaneously to more than one publication when the guidelines clearly state not to. 

I haven’t done it (yet), though I have been tempted more than once.

Short story writers, what are your views on long response times and simultaneous submissions?