straying from fidelity
Today was to be a day of traveling over to Sidney on Vancouver Island to visit my father, but I had to beg off when I realized that I seem, despite all my prophylactic efforts, to be developing cold symptoms. I thought I had dodged the bullet, having fended it off for so long after Robin and Kimmie came down with it, but seemingly not. I phoned Dad and rescheduled for the Canada Day long weekend.
Kimmie and Robin are off to Metrotown to do shoe shopping. I had them drop me here; I can't face Metrotown.
This morning I indulged myself by allowing myself to explore a new story idea. After working for years on one idea, and following it down so many byways, staying more or less faithful to it, this is like forbidden fruit: the excitement of new romance. In fact, each stage of a writing project has its joys, I think. But there is the initial intoxication of an idea that captures one's imagination. "What if that did happen...?"
Before I finally committed to working on my current opus, I was "dating" a number of different story ideas. My idea was to try to follow my inspiration: which of the ideas captured my imagination most? Which one was calling to me?
It turned out to be less clear-cut than I'd hoped. Eventually I decided to commit to The Mission because I had already invested so much effort and emotional energy in it, and because it does represent the culmination of my thinking and wondering over the past 20-odd years. Everything else is only a passing infatuation by comparison--a story crush.
This idea is set in the future: the opposite of what I'm working on. I'm naturally attracted to big, strange ideas with wide-ranging consequences. That's what gets my juices going. So I'm playing with that, having some recreational fun. It may crystallize in another book.
Kimmie and Robin are off to Metrotown to do shoe shopping. I had them drop me here; I can't face Metrotown.
This morning I indulged myself by allowing myself to explore a new story idea. After working for years on one idea, and following it down so many byways, staying more or less faithful to it, this is like forbidden fruit: the excitement of new romance. In fact, each stage of a writing project has its joys, I think. But there is the initial intoxication of an idea that captures one's imagination. "What if that did happen...?"
Before I finally committed to working on my current opus, I was "dating" a number of different story ideas. My idea was to try to follow my inspiration: which of the ideas captured my imagination most? Which one was calling to me?
It turned out to be less clear-cut than I'd hoped. Eventually I decided to commit to The Mission because I had already invested so much effort and emotional energy in it, and because it does represent the culmination of my thinking and wondering over the past 20-odd years. Everything else is only a passing infatuation by comparison--a story crush.
This idea is set in the future: the opposite of what I'm working on. I'm naturally attracted to big, strange ideas with wide-ranging consequences. That's what gets my juices going. So I'm playing with that, having some recreational fun. It may crystallize in another book.
Labels: creativity, everyday life, my family
posted by paulv at
2:42 PM
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