I have an idea for what I want to write next and I think it's pretty good - but grim again. However, I'm sure I have another shadow of an idea flitting round my head. I catch glimpses of it and I like it, but as with any shadow I can't pin the damn thing down. I want to catch this idea, but if I do I bet it will only be a tiddler not the shark I want. Perhaps I should let it swim around my head a while longer. Perhaps it will grow better without conscious interference, or does it need a little feeding - and how should I do that? Perhaps if I read Gaiman and Grimm, Pullman and Pratchett, Dahl and Mitchell - and damn, my alliterative pairings have just been broken and so has my chain of thought - now where was I. I'm sure I have a shadow of an idea flitting round my head ...
Reading never hurts, nor does quiet reflection. Ideas often need time to grow. My new project is actually something I first decided to do about 35 years ago. Of course, ideas don't necessarily take that long to develop. My experience is also that conscious prodding, rather than something to be avoided, is necessary to determine if the idea really will work or not. Good luck.
Thanks Ed. Apart from 1 short, I've written nothing new for 6 months now. I'm not like the many who seem to need to continually write, but I am now getting an itch to. I've read loads in the last 6 months and as I've been writing Crime, a lot of it has been Crime - but I'm getting more and more fussy about what I stick with. I gave my last 2 books, by the same author, 50 pages and 20 pages. And another book 60 or 70 pages. I've actually enjoyed novels bye 2 people I have recently swapped with more than the published. I agree with you on conscious prodding. Good luck with your 35 year old idea. Ah, of course, you're a history writer aren't you. You were clearly waiting for that idea to be set in a time old enough to be called history!
Writing stuff down helps, too... sometimes... I think. I've been in this situation many times. In fact, I'm in this situation right now. Most times, I pack it in after a few months, but I keep revisiting this particular idea and have been for five years. I make notes on anything related to the central idea and, with this particular story (e=MagiC Squared) I've written a full draft of a novel as well as a full draft of a screenplay. This is all just exploration so far and only one character from the screenplay version made it into the novel version... Well, two characters, really, but neither of them was the MC... Or maybe one of them should be the MC and that's why this story idea is taking so long. And I'm still jotting notes, researching and fiddling with new ideas. I'm several hundred thousand words in and I'm still looking for something solid to hang the original idea on. But I am getting closer... I think.
Not really. I'm focusing on the late-16th/early 17th centuries, so that was never the problem. Being able to research it was. And then life happened. And then other ideas crowded in.
