Kill My Cuties

Like in my last post, in stuck thinking about ideas. Ideas that stick are the best kind, since they’re the ones that are most likely to keep coming at you, attacking you day and night, until they’re written.

Killing your cuties, or your babies -or however you view your idea/stories- is more bizarre and intense than just killing off a character. It’s letting the whole of the idea die.

I’ve become a tad (read A Lot) obsessed with the site TVTropes, and as such, I go through the categories depending on what’s currently on my mind. If I’m hungry, I can look up Foods and get all kinds of groups talking about silly things like Trademark Favorite Foods, laughing as I remember Kyle Sour Patch Kids obsession or all the Tabasco sauce Michael, Max and Isabella used. I’ve found new books and TV series in this way. (Seriously, I’m watching and enjoying The Vampire Diaries now, just because of certain tropes assigned to Damon.)

I like this site, because it shows what works. If your trying to not be cliche, this site gives a pretty decent bases to realize your great new idea, is maybe not so new. It could still be great. None of those pages have just the one book/show/movie/etc assigned to them. Your idea could still be great.

It could also show you that it’s time to kill your cutie.

And while your muse might start channeling Annie’s It’s a Hard-knock Life, it still holds true.

I still think one of my best ideas come at age 11, in sixth grade math with my best friend and a sheet of graphing paper we weren’t graphing on. It’s no Good Will Hunting, but we were stoked about it. Then she moved and I’ve never collaborated with someone on a story since. I’ve never really shared my writing dream with someone the same way again.

Killed that cutie!

Since then, many a good idea has met the bin. Usually after hitting a brick wall in the maze of writing, and turning around to see your muse ran off to join the circus. He won’t return with any stories to share anytime soon and the story flatlines.

It sucks to let those stories go, all that time wasted plotting and character building. Still better the memory than the anchor.

Happy Writing!

I Wanna Be a Writer!

But what makes a writer? A person that writes!

I just finished reading this post, apparently from a week or so back, and it made me smile with rejoice.

What Is A Real Writer?

Gosh, I just love posts like that, that make me feel better about my crappy output of words. I love to write, don’t get me wrong. I love to read and write and create stories in my head and try to get them somewhat out onto paper.

Is it just me, or does the process of writing seem to kill the story?

When I have an idea in my head, I want to get it on ‘paper’ as soon as possible. If I’m already on my computer, this paper will be a new document entitled IDEA #, where I have already reached #5 just last Friday. Then there’s my idea book. Those have my midnight rambling and half attempts to get a semi formed thought onto paper. Sometimes this is enough to get a full idea forming, or at least respark the thought in my mind.

Sometimes, I feel like someone else has stolen my notebook and gone berserk in it.

The ideas themselves aren’t always all that good. Otherwise, I’d have to find a way to be writing some 40+ stories, and that just isn’t going to happen.

Everything sparks an idea in me. Not that I’m getting a new idea ever second, or even every day, but just about. Some ideas tie in with a story I am already in the process of fleshing out. Some ideas are insignificant character buildups, like allergies and shoe sizes, that are never going to be in the actual story, but my subcon wanted me to know. I love those little tidbits about my characters. It’s like those conversations you have with your best friend that a passerby would think you strange if they over heard. My characters become my best friends in the sense that I have to know these things about them.

And then there are the ideas that suck. I like keeping them around, because it’s good to suck! It helps to know that you can also be good, you have proof of that, but you are no where near perfect. No one can pop out every idea that comes to them. (Except maybe James Patterson! He has a lot of books out, every year. And while there may be ghost writers involved, those are still his ideas! I find that crazy!)

I find everything about writing crazy and insane and just thrilling! How bizarre is it to make your own person, name them and design them and flaw them, give them dreams and nightmares and then create people to help them and love them, hate them and hurt them. These are you children, in a sense, but they’re their own people too. They’re your lifelong friends, family, teammates. It’s an exciting thing, seeing them learn and grow. Their success is your success, because you have managed to get them through it. No hero will beat the villain if you can’t get yourself out of bed in the morning and to your computer. No girl gets her perfect prom night if you’re too busy running errands to sit and flush out some words onto that pad. It just can’t happen without you.

If simply can’t.

And that, to me, is what makes a writer.