A month ago I decided to NOT WRITE while on vacation in England and France in order to get away from obcessing on the multiple short story drafts and the two 98% completed draft novels on my desk. I wanted to take a breather from thinking so I could bring renewed energy and commitment to the work. Best to step away from the art for a bit, said I.
Only everywhere I've been my surroundings scream with story ideas. Local history abounds with plot lines, ancient structures belie future ancient structures of our contemporary age, and the polysyllabic sounds and a dozen languages (mostly Italian, since this is France in August!) gives rise to new ideas for a Sam Boone or two.
I find myself dreaming in story lines and awake find myself involuntarily contemplating how this or that incident/scene/location could become SF-ish. I picture aliens interpreting the tourist sites, albeit with rather different conceptual interpretations and interests than the often confused tourists. Every time I yearn to jot notes, only to stop by reminding myself of the promise I made NOT to be a writer on this trip but simply to enjoy the moments. This exercise has taught me is that despite my attempts to suppress it, the creative impulse cannot be denied; there are simply too many story ideas in the world to be ignored. I suppose that eventually memories of this hiatus will leak into my work, color my language, or even spark a new direction.
And oh, do I want to get back to my writer's lair.
#SFWApro
Only everywhere I've been my surroundings scream with story ideas. Local history abounds with plot lines, ancient structures belie future ancient structures of our contemporary age, and the polysyllabic sounds and a dozen languages (mostly Italian, since this is France in August!) gives rise to new ideas for a Sam Boone or two.
I find myself dreaming in story lines and awake find myself involuntarily contemplating how this or that incident/scene/location could become SF-ish. I picture aliens interpreting the tourist sites, albeit with rather different conceptual interpretations and interests than the often confused tourists. Every time I yearn to jot notes, only to stop by reminding myself of the promise I made NOT to be a writer on this trip but simply to enjoy the moments. This exercise has taught me is that despite my attempts to suppress it, the creative impulse cannot be denied; there are simply too many story ideas in the world to be ignored. I suppose that eventually memories of this hiatus will leak into my work, color my language, or even spark a new direction.
And oh, do I want to get back to my writer's lair.
#SFWApro
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