Not Been in a Blogging Mood

I wish I had a wonderful excuse why I haven't been writing blog posts or more assiduously following everyone else. I've tried to keep up with all of you, but I haven't seemed to have anything of import to say myself. I don't have a great excuse. I haven't been swamped or overcome or hit by a bus. I just haven't been driven to write a post.

Maybe I've said all I have to say.

Or maybe the mood will hit me again.

Between my three blogs, I've written over 750 posts (not counting those I haven't yet reused from the now-defunct today. com). Since I've made a point of saying something of meaning in the vast majority of those posts, that's a great deal.

Politics, science, writing, history, philosophy, quotes. I'm a dabbler and I've enjoyed it. But I don't want to write a post to check a box or meet a quota. I want, if I'm writing, to do it because it calls to me. For some reason, the passion I once had to write blogs seems to be on the wane.

Still, it's here. And, who knows, I might get the drive again. Or regurgitate other "greatest hits." Just wanted you all to know I haven't forgotten you; nor am I ungrateful for the readership and fascinating comments I've often received. But if I want my blog to mean something, I should write it when I'm impelled to write it.

And, at the moment, I'm not (as this rambler can demonstrate).

I hope you'll stop by now and again in case I find some untapped well of inspiration that currently eludes me.

Your patience is appreciated.

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What Inspires Me?

Project Savior (who isn't interested in the prize) gave me a great idea for a blog post, perhaps the kind of inspiration good for more than one: what inspires me.

You know it's interesting. One reason I don't read "how to write" books is that they seem to be largely concerned with "how to get ideas." How to get ideas? Are you kidding me? Why would be be interested in writing anything if you didn't have something to say?

I never run out of ideas (for fiction) because, for me, fiction is all about playing what if.

What's cool about what if is that anything can trigger it. It might be triggered, like "Backseat Driver" was by an off-hand comment, about the irritating cars that say things like "Your door is ajar." (As in "What if the car was really irritating and did stuff like criticize your driving?") It could be a term I like like "codeslinger" used by a programmer I know or the image of a programmer dealing with multiple screens and systems at one time. Combine that with a notion of growing organs in space (something I actually worked with in reality), and the premise all but lands in my lap.

It might be something in history that inspired me, which is how I wrote the epic poem "Memtaz Majal." History clearly influences much of my work - I love history - as do images that call to me. I just wrote about a temple inspired by the Taj Majal because, hey, it's beautiful. Sometimes, an image or a picture is all you want to convey, and the story just comes along afterwards.

But other thing can trigger it. Books or movies I like can trigger it. Sometimes, it's a book that's wonderful or that touches me. It might be characteristics that draw me that I feel compelled to showcase myself - usually in a completely different venue with a different history or characteristics - except retaining those particular features I was charmed by. For instance, enjoying a character who's slick, capable, and self-confident in an a post-apocolyptic world probably means that I'll enjoy playing with a self-confident, capable and sarcastic character in a sword and sorcery environment.

But, even more inspiring for me is a potential that just isn't used. A character or premise with potential that was squandered will often inspire me to write a story the way I think it should have been written. I'm not talking about rewriting that story; I'm talking about creating a story inspired but what the other story lacked. Believe me, that's different.

Sometimes, I'll be honest, I have no idea where something comes from. Many of the things that have brought a floundering story together (or made it far more entertaining) were things I effectively pulled from my, well, you know.

Some ideas simmer literally for years until the right inspirations hit to put them all together. Some come to me almost fully formed and it's all I can do to type them fast enough. But I try to capture the essence of those ideas so that I can always go back later.

It's got to be my story, or I shouldn't be telling it. But I seriously don't think that's been a problem. I know I love telling them and love playing what if, as tickled by the journey as anyone who reads it.

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Inspiration

Ah, the whims of inspiration.

I'm working on my new novel, of course, which takes bits and pieces of a thousand different daydreams and fantasies and tries to put them together intelligently.

Except it's slow going and that worries me a bit.

When I'm excited, caught up in inspiration, I can't be stopped. I scribble scenes and bits whatever I'm doing, often writing up page after page in dull meetings or watching a show. When I was working on the first draft of the Bete, I wrote 63,000 words in 10 days (though I took a few days off work, too).

For catalyst, I struggle to get a page or two a day, if that. And I have to craft each line - it doesn't flow from my fingers as quickly as I can type it as I so often do.

What does this mean? It's not crap (I think) as it usually is when I grind to a halt: when I do that, there's no sense in continuing. What I'll be writing is so bad, it will be completely worthless. I do occasionally run into scenes that are not inspirational and that I just basically fill in the action and plot pieces knowing I'll have to go back and flesh them out later. But it doesn't feel like that either.

Am I crazy? Am I overthinking this? Does it need to simmer a bit more before I tackle this project? How in the heck would you know? Do you care in the slightest? If so, for heaven's sake why?

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