Last night was one of those times when stories flitted willy-nilly about my mind. Characters blossomed, ideas took root, and concepts became concrete scenes. It would have been wonderful, except it was nearing midnight, and I was trying to sleep.
That always seems to be the case with me. These great ideas pop into my mind at the most inopportune times. I’ve burned many a meal running for a notepad, learned to jot semi-legible notes without having to look away from the road, and keep pens and spirals scattered throughout my small apartment. I had to learn the latter the hard way, when I had an idea before going to sleep and thought to myself, “Oooh, I like that. In fact, I like it so much I won’t need to write it down right now. I can remember that in the morning.”
Morning comes and, yep, you guessed it. I remember that I had a great story idea, but I don’t remember what.
Every once in a while though, a scene (and not a concept) will appear, playing vivid in my mind like a movie. But what makes these scenes stand out from all the others is the intensity of the emotion. I feel what the character feels. And these scenes stay with me until they find a home in a story; they never dull, they never fade, they just wait. This is what happened last night. Unfortunately, this scene doesn’t fit into any of my current WIPs, nor does it fit into the concept of any of my back burner stories.
I have the defining scene of a character’s history, I know how it’s worked into the story that I’ll tell, I just don’t know what that story is. Of course, the last thing I need is another back burner story. I think the last count was somewhere around twelve or so, and I have the feeling that this new one might be yet another paranormal. Nicole to Brain: Concentrate on the romantic comedies; those are the ones next in line for production!
Sometimes I don’t know which is worse: writer’s block or scene schizophrenia.
On the plus side, I managed to tap back into the main character of PYNIMY, one of my two current works-in-progress. I’d lost touch with her for awhile, but she’s deigned to open up again, which means I managed to pick up a good word count this weekend.
Also, carrier pigeons.
