Overload

I’ve been busy at work, busy with sorting out my car, busy messing up dinner and then crying about it… Nothing seems to go right lately. I’m more than ready for my upcoming week off *snigger*.

The snigger, of course, is because it isn’t a week off from stress, only from going in to work. I will still have to drive my family around, I will still have to cook dinner (though admittedly we’re spending two nights away from home so I won’t have to do it then), and I will still have to remain on call for my job (which is a whole lot less glamorous than ‘doctor’ or ‘consultant’).

Why am I looking forward to it? I associate not having to go into the office, and even not having to wear office clothing, with relaxation and de-stressing. Probably a holdover from my school days, where non-uniform days were hailed as the pinnacle of any school term.

My writing has, yet again, not been progressing, though I’m edging towards what I think will be some quality writing time – we’ve finally taken on the task of getting the housework finished before we go away.

In the meantime, I’m adding continually to my over-long list of stories to write, largely in the low-intensity area of romance. The sheer number of situations I can envisage is something to be proud of; the main reason I haven’t been upping my fantasy count so much is that the setting has taken up the bulk of my creativity there.

I was pleasantly surprised this week when I was required to write something distinctly non-formal for an expo we’re doing: 100-word limit, no sales jargon, describe the company without being boring. I had loads of fun with that one!

Manx as the hills, yessir

Having spent the last week in the isle of man, visiting family and collecting my son, I’ve had a wonderful break from work. Less wonderful is my break from writing – three hours on a ferry is great for productivity, as are two hours on a train. Less helpful is the time spent with family, everyone determined we get out of the house and do things. *shudder*

With the roads being closed, it forces you to acknowledge how useful it is to have many different roads going in the same direction, though admittedly that may have been by design as the tt course was first laid out over a hundred years ago. The locals must have captained for roads to be paved in such a way that there was an easy route in disturbed areas.

Family time – the normality of being alone together – is something that’s nice to share with people you don’t live with any more.

Getting new ideas is par for the course as a writer, but there’s still not much as annoying as being struck with a new idea and no way to get it down. The most irritating of these situations is when the materials are present and you’re not allowed to use them, namely late at night when you’re awake and your partner’s asleep. Even worse than not having a notepad around. Or a pen.

Too Many Stories

I am overflowing with ideas. It has got to the point where every time I flesh out a story I’ve already plotted, two things happen: I link it to another story by virtue of a detail which is minor in one and major in the other; and I get a brand new idea for another story.

My current list of stories I’ve plotted and haven’t written (sadly all of the plotted ones are in this category, though I’m working on it) is now over a hundred strong. Seriously.

I’ve got absolutely zero idea of how to make it stop, short of forcing myself (somehow) to only write one thing at a time… but I get bored. I get bored very easily. One might say I’ve the attention span of a gnat. It irritates my other half no end, especially when we’re watching TV.

Back to topic, I have even found a way around worldbuilding each one: they’re all set in the same place. The world of Far, dreamt up long ago in the dark ages when I was a teenager and the dinosaurs were alive (my son has genuinely asked if I had a pet dinosaur), is now richly furnished with a full history, spanning some three ages (that I’ve bothered to plot) and a few massive events.

Without the need to build the history for each story, I tend to find that plotting is quick and easy, which is a bad thing in this case because I need a motivation NOT to do this and focus on getting something written instead. I can’t even try for a word count, because despite being immensely good with words, I both write sparsely and never linearly. How am I supposed to work out when I’m getting near to finishing?

Option 1 is to plot down to the scene level; once I have a list of scenes which need to be written, I can check off against the master list (something yWriter is especially good at) and see what there is left to do.

Option 2 is to write in order, from start to finish, no matter how horrible it is, and see if I can’t make it better with practice. I’m primarily against this approach because it might just spawn too many more ideas, which is obviously a big problem for me. The other issue is that I tend to both create new characters (who then have their own plots and backstories) and change the focus of the story. This renders all my nice plotting irrelevant.

I have a strong feeling I’ll be focusing on option 1. Keep checking in to watch me bash my head against a wall.