Before you say it - yes I haven't uploaded any new material in a little while. Stop glaring, lower the pitchforks.
Amongst trying to find time to write Beneath the Door, decorate the house, work out how to build furniture and revise notes on my new job - I have decided to take shelter under the brick entrance of my workplace, shivering in the chilly and rainy atmosphere, and finally get something online.
One thing I find very common in the writing industry, are writers - both new and old struggling to find exciting new ideas and inspiration to channel themselves into and spend endless hours and sleepless nights pouring over. Now I have conducted a little experiment myself to see just how much I can stretch my creative muscles... The challenge I set for myself: "Write 25 new story ideas in the space of a working week".
I tried to procrastinate and insist to myself that it was a gone idea and I really didn't have the time. So what did I do to resolve this? I mentally battered the procrastination side of my brain and did it anyway. For five days in the small moments I was sat at my desk and needed a break from the computer screen, I jotted down ideas like my life depended on it. I retreated to every webbed, dusty corner of my brain and retrieved every sudden idea I could think of, to which I was then able to craft a brief synopsis, characters, scene, timescales, ect. The only thing I had trouble with, was picking out suitable names to suit my characters - which for me takes a lot longer. I want to lovingly bestow my creations with suitable names - so I gave them 'starter' names, which I may alter at a later date.
That aside, I came out of the week with 25 sets of plots, scenarios and worlds. Some of the ideas I came out with ended up really astonished myself into thinking; brainstorming really works! A few that really stand out in my mind involve a post- apocalyptic world, the depths of gritty london's past and numerous vast social spirals. Needless to say, my new shiny characters are really going to be stretched to the limit when I get around to writing 25 full novels based on these ideas.
Now if I can find time to imagine all of these ideas out of an empty brain amid my busy daily life - why are you still sitting there wondering what to do next? I challenge you!
- H x
