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Friday 8 December 2017

My Idea Files


After my whole writing world was turned upside down early this year, I decided to throw myself into writing new short stories and novels.

I thought it was time to deal with everything by taking a step back from the publishing world and going back to basics. I wanted to remember why I love writing so much: I love to tell stories. I love creating worlds, and meeting new characters, getting lost in actual writing.

Not to mention that it's something I just have to do. Writing is an itch that can only be satisfied with the actual act of creating.

It was time to face a new path, and that all began with my Idea Files. I have at least 20 separate ideas going at once. I randomly add inspirational pics, notes & other stuff to these folders, whenever something strikes.

Sometimes these ideas become books, other times short stories. Some don't develop into anything. I've even merged different ideas together. It's a very organic process.

While doing all this writing, I noticed something peculiar about my (current) process: Every time I finish writing a first draft, my brain is suddenly swamped with new ideas.

Or at least, bits & pieces & fragments to add to the Idea Files I already have. Even brand new ideas spring out of nowhere. It's a strange and wonderful thing, and it keeps happening. 

As soon as I'm done with my current WIP, a sudden rush of new things wash over my brain. So I write everything down, or collect new pictures. I even make graphics about the story (or stories). It's like when I've finally finished a draft, my mind opens up the floodgates to allow new stuff to percolate.

And you know what happens when I spend months daydreaming, brainstorming and collecting pics about a bunch of different ideas? By the time I'm ready to write, the story is very much ready to be told. I end up having a great grasp of everything, just need to take all the vibrant fragments and piece them together in the right sequence.

I have to admit that I love this!

For example, over the weekend a brand new shiny idea struck out of nowhere. By Sunday evening I had 50+ inspirational pics, graphics with story snippets, character names, genre and setting. It was so darn cool. And then yesterday, a completely different idea that I had set up with about 5 pics and genre, all of a sudden presented me with some very unexpected info.

I hadn't even been thinking about this particular idea. All the stuff came out of nowhere.

Here's a tweet I posted last weekend about this topic:
😁

I was going to post another weekly update, but thought this was a much better subject to talk about. It's cool to share what's in my headspace on my blog. Not to mention that I probably won't be starting any new projects this month, but I'm really looking forward to telling more stories. Sprinkled with some serious revision. 

But that's for next year! It's no good to write, write, write without finalising some.

For the rest of the year I'm going to put together some sort of plan for my 2018 WIPs, and daydream about all of my ideas... Plus I plan to keep reading. Of course.

Hubby has next week off, so I'm excited about that. Annnnnd, we're going to watch THE LAST JEDI!! Very cool.

Have a great weekend.🌞

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