A Spark Arises
Well, the old fires are starting to spark up again. Maybe it’s because it’s nearing November, which as any writer who’s spent any reasonable time online can tell you, is NaNoWriMo. Maybe it’s just the changing of the weather — colder days seem to draw out the creative juices a little better for me for some reason. Or maybe it’s just because I’ve taken enough time away from it that I’m starting to miss it and get tired of coding all day again.
Regardless of the reason, the writer in me is starting to stir around again, and I’m once again fleshing out ideas for Broken Peaces. Of course, I’ve still got to get Shattered up to specs, but I think most of Shattered is pretty solid. It needs some clean up — there’s a lot of typos and a lot of stuff that could be worded better — but it’s … well … solid.
The main thing I’m having a bit of trouble with right now is how to come up with a story that can top the drama in Shattered. Like I said quite a bit last year, Shattered is a lot darker than Like Glass was. A lot darker. I was re-reading the last third or so of the novel today, wanting to bring myself back up to speed on that world so I can dig into Broken Peaces, and I was pleasantly surprised at it. It’d been a long time since I’d looked through any of it, let alone the tail end where things really go to hell, and while I’d remembered the genera idea of the plot (i.e. who does what to whom and for how much), I’d forgotten the overall gist of it. It’s kinda like the difference between just hearing a song’s melody and hearing the song with the full band behind it.
Anyways, I’ve got a couple of decent ideas for things that could … well … go wrong. And let’s face it: stories where things go right are pretty boring — something has to go wrong in order to get your interest. The girl has to dump the guy. The aliens have to invade. The super villain has to have his plot to destroy the world unless the world governments are going to pay … one million dollars (where the hell is the Dr. Evil pinky-to-cheek emoticon when you need it?). Otherwise, it’s a yawn fest.
And for what it’s worth, I already know how Broken Peaces is going to end. It’s just a matter of getting there — the journey’s the best part.
It’s going to be interesting to see how I’m going to pull it together though, now that I’m working full time at a job I actually enjoy. When I wrote Like Glass, I was working from home, so I could write while I had some down time. When I wrote Shattered last year, I was taking a leave of absence for personal reasons. Where I’m at now though, I couldn’t take the time off, nor do I even really want to — the job’s actually pretty good.
That probably also has a lot to do with how I’m looking at Broken Peaces and why I’m having such a hard time getting my brain fired up for it. I’m in a much better mind set than I was when I wrote Like Glass, and worlds better than when I wrote Shattered. Now I don’t quite have the same emotions to build from, so getting the juices flowing is going to be a lot different this time around than last time.
At least there’s one thing in my favor for this: I’d never planned on Broken Peaces being anywhere near as dark as Shattered. Probably not as dark as Like Glass either, but definitely much lighter than the last venture into Rob’s world. So that should make it a bit easier to get going. We’ll see though.
Well, I’ve got about three weeks to get things in order before NaNoWriMo starts, so hopefully that’ll be enough time to get the fires lit properly and get some good ideas flowing.
In the meantime though, it’s nigh on bedtime, and I’ve got a couple of projects due at work in the next couple of weeks, so I’d better start heading along. Catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
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