Thursday, March 7, 2013

Plot Bunnies...how many of us have them?

There was a time....that is the start to one of my favorite movies, Lucky Number Slevin. If you haven't seen it I recommend you spend your Saturday night with a loved one and a pint of ice cream and Slevin.

Hopefully this post won't end the same as the movie.

Anyhoo back to my post, there was a time when I couldn't get a single idea to smack me across the face and tap dance across my plot book. I mean I could sit for hours trying to get anything to come anything to happen and it never did. I took all the advice I could stomach from everyone that I know that was a creative person.

None of it worked. I mean I felt like a balloon with no air. I know I wanted to be a writer. I know I had the skill set to be a writer, but I didn't have any plot ideas and I felt unused and unloved basically. What was wrong with me? My family was no help. They are still convinced I hang out with white people too much. Like only white people make good fantasy writers. I will be sure to lose their invites to my book launch.

How could I hope to be a writer if I couldn't come up with anything to write? It was that thought that plagued me as the 2012 NaNoWriMo loomed overhead, and to make matters worse I was a first year municipal liaison  So I was in charge of the success of my entire region's NaNo experience and chief among them was completing my own 50,000 novel!

I was in full panic mode under my calm, cool exterior. I mean my mother always told me never let the children see you sweat and I've taken that tidbit of advice to heart.

Once the initial plot came and I started writing I got inspiration from everywhere in everything. So much so that I had to start carrying around a little notebook and a pen in my purse so that I could capture my ideas down before they snuck out in the middle of the night without so much as a Dear John note. I tried keeping track of them on the little notebook app on my phone, but it just wasn't large enough and sometimes I can't type that fast on that little keyboard to get out everything that I want to get out before the idea dries up. My ideas can be that fleeting sometimes. Other times they linger for a day or two to make sure I write down everything.

Now I've got more plot bunnies than I know what to do with. The little buggers are everywhere. They keep multiplying and spreading, and I can never predict when they are going to give birth. In the shower, on the phone, at work, at church, at the gym (doesn't happen as often because I don't go that much), while I'm elbow deep in cutting up chicken breasts for dinner and can't possible dash to my computer to bang out the idea. They even invade my dreams, which is freaky beyond measure. Its like seeing a movie of my book in my head before its written.

Wonder if screenwriters have that problem....

I've managed to fill up six composition books with possible plots and story outlines. Not to mention I have a old school notebook that I have repurposed as a plot binder that is now filled with story notes and folders crammed with slips of paper and stray receipts scribbled with all manner of random plot notes.

You would think that would be enough plots to keep my fingers moving till the Second Coming and that is true, but a lot of the plots are just single lines from something that inspired more. Or a rehash of an earlier idea with a different spin. Like a vampire plot with a steampunk setting. Or a werewolf hunter plot with a hint of Cinderella thrown in for good measure. Most of them are full blown plots with characters and experimental plot outlines done.

Does anyone else have this plot bunny problems?

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