It's moving around inside me. It's been there for a while now. I keep waiting for it to mature and emerge but it's taking it's sweet time.
It's driving me crazy.
It's an idea for a story. I know when it's ready that it'll be a really good one, intense, powerful, with a bittersweet ending.
Unfortunately that's about all I know about it so far. I've got a setting and the very beginnings of a plot. And a basic theme--it'll be about how love is not possible without pain, and the more one loves someone the more pain one will feel.
It'll also be a study in contrasts. I love having really beautiful stories set in places of almost unimaginable horror. Finding beauty in places of horrendous ugliness. Swans in sewers. Roses in hell. It makes for some moving, powerful stories.
So, it's really frustrating that my subconcious apparently still isn't quite ready to vomit this thing up. I've learned from experience that attempting to start something before it's ready is a big mistake, and could possibly ruin it for me down the road.
Which means I wait. And wait. And wait . . . that blank first page will remain blank until it's really and truly ready to be filled.
Dammit!
Showing posts with label prose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prose. Show all posts
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
A return to prose
Okay, I've got this idea for a story.
I don't ordinarily write prose. Not anymore, anyways. I spend my time writing lyrics and screenplays and proposals for screenplays--hopefully one day something will get produced, But prose? Not so much. Just doesn't appeal to me after beating my head against the "gotta be published to get published" wall.
Of course now I am published so a few more doors are now open to me that weren't before. Which now means that it may not actually be a waste of time to sit down and write a story.
So, as soon as I work out a few more details I'm gonna start on this tale that's inspired by my song, "Inside." It should run to about twenty thousand words or so, I guesstimate.
It'll be a horror story, but in the end it'll be about love, and how it may be the ultimate act of love for someone to allow them to destroy themselves.
These are the things I think about.
It should be pretty intense. There is a very difficult concept that lies at the heart of this thing that, if I can convey it properly, will be quite wonderful. If I miss the mark, though, it'll . . . what's the word? Suck. That's the word.
So, wish me luck, and I'll keep you posted. I wrote a little on it a while back and posted it here but I think that'll change significantly.
If you want to hear the song that I'm basing this on click the links to your right or at the top. Feel free to check out the other tunes, too. I feel sure there will be one or two that you'll dig.
I don't ordinarily write prose. Not anymore, anyways. I spend my time writing lyrics and screenplays and proposals for screenplays--hopefully one day something will get produced, But prose? Not so much. Just doesn't appeal to me after beating my head against the "gotta be published to get published" wall.
Of course now I am published so a few more doors are now open to me that weren't before. Which now means that it may not actually be a waste of time to sit down and write a story.
So, as soon as I work out a few more details I'm gonna start on this tale that's inspired by my song, "Inside." It should run to about twenty thousand words or so, I guesstimate.
It'll be a horror story, but in the end it'll be about love, and how it may be the ultimate act of love for someone to allow them to destroy themselves.
These are the things I think about.
It should be pretty intense. There is a very difficult concept that lies at the heart of this thing that, if I can convey it properly, will be quite wonderful. If I miss the mark, though, it'll . . . what's the word? Suck. That's the word.
So, wish me luck, and I'll keep you posted. I wrote a little on it a while back and posted it here but I think that'll change significantly.
If you want to hear the song that I'm basing this on click the links to your right or at the top. Feel free to check out the other tunes, too. I feel sure there will be one or two that you'll dig.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Okay, this is weird
I'm doing something I've never done before.
I'm rewriting a story to make it longer. Quite a bit longer. It originally weighed in at 1,200 words. I need it to be around 5,000 to 6,000 words.
It's for an editor who loved the original story, but has a requirement that submissions be at least 5,000 words. He wants me to add the additional wordage.
This is proving difficult. You can't just add scenes--they have to make sense, they have to help the story, and they must not diminish the impact of the ending. I think it's easier to trim something that's too long and to pump up something that's too short. Insert Freudian joke here.
I'm not complaining, mind you. It's so rare to get feedback from an editor that I'm more than happy to give it a shot, just in the hope of making him happy. Most editors these days don't read past the byline--if it's a name they don't recognize it gets trashed, if it's one they do, they send it on to get published. Which is why I just gave up a while back. Of course, this guy actually reads submissions, so I want to give him something to keep him busy. He's a rare bird and I want to hit him up before he becomes more like his peers.
In the mean time I'm listening to "Shallow Life" by one of my favorite bands, Lacuna Coil. Nice little soundtrack to assist me with my thinking. If you aren't familiar with these guys you need to check them out. Their music is sometimes haunting, sometimes hard-driving, sometimes a little silly, but always good at assisting one's imagination when one is trying one's best to create genius. Or, if not genius, at least something people will want to read.
I'm rewriting a story to make it longer. Quite a bit longer. It originally weighed in at 1,200 words. I need it to be around 5,000 to 6,000 words.
It's for an editor who loved the original story, but has a requirement that submissions be at least 5,000 words. He wants me to add the additional wordage.
This is proving difficult. You can't just add scenes--they have to make sense, they have to help the story, and they must not diminish the impact of the ending. I think it's easier to trim something that's too long and to pump up something that's too short. Insert Freudian joke here.
I'm not complaining, mind you. It's so rare to get feedback from an editor that I'm more than happy to give it a shot, just in the hope of making him happy. Most editors these days don't read past the byline--if it's a name they don't recognize it gets trashed, if it's one they do, they send it on to get published. Which is why I just gave up a while back. Of course, this guy actually reads submissions, so I want to give him something to keep him busy. He's a rare bird and I want to hit him up before he becomes more like his peers.
In the mean time I'm listening to "Shallow Life" by one of my favorite bands, Lacuna Coil. Nice little soundtrack to assist me with my thinking. If you aren't familiar with these guys you need to check them out. Their music is sometimes haunting, sometimes hard-driving, sometimes a little silly, but always good at assisting one's imagination when one is trying one's best to create genius. Or, if not genius, at least something people will want to read.
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