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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Temporarily Devoid of Ideas

It's November. Which means it's NaNoWriMo. I haven't signed up yet, but am planning to. Especially since I just finished a manuscript and have the freedom to start a new one in time to get 50,000 words done by the end of the month. Plus, it's a good motivator.

Here's the problem: after you finish a novel, you tend to be rather exhausted and spent. I am currently devoid of ideas for a new novel. I need to find some inspiration. And no, this isn't a call out for people to throw me ideas. That never works for me. It's just me working out some of that mental block to try and find something in there that cries out to be written.

I had considered expanding this Lovecraftian swords-and-sorcery tale I wrote into a full novel. Maybe I still will. I'm just not sure there's a market for that now in a field that's SO over-saturated with garbage fantasy. What does one have to do to make their fantasy tale stand out in a filed that's so riddled with it? How do you walk into a book store, look at all those fantasy books, and say, "That one looks good!"

How do you find something NEW? Randomly choosing one off the shelf can work, but it ends up biting you in the arse more often than it ends up introducing you to great new authors, especially now that anyone can pop onto Lulu and pay $90 to have their book on the shelf at Barnes & Noble. That's sad, but it's the nature of the beast these days. In a world where hacks like Stephanie Meyer are critically praised, it's tough to find quality material out there, and even tougher to have your own work stand out.

Maybe I'm overthinking it. Maybe I should just let old Wotan and Isis loose in the Wasted Lands and see what happens. After all, it's just NaNoWriMo, right?

1 comment:


Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom, and Mary Magdalene.

I'm not a mad bible thumper--Sophia, however, is my inspiration and always in my heart