tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post762695797488404835..comments2024-03-25T09:56:16.164+00:00Comments on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure: Please Miss, what shall I write? - Anne RooneyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-47681058824817914772010-03-16T20:26:32.350+00:002010-03-16T20:26:32.350+00:00yes... but be careful of the mags you choose to te...yes... but be careful of the mags you choose to tear up... I found myself with a Psychiatry magazine and ended up with a very bizarre collage that had me howling about family relationships when I tried to tell the rest of the group about it! But maybe the magazines choose you and not the other way around... and it was quite cathartic!!!Dianne Hofmeyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222157214605257030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-73203298610889594712010-03-16T07:37:08.557+00:002010-03-16T07:37:08.557+00:00Thank you, everyone, for all your helpful suggesti...Thank you, everyone, for all your helpful suggestions. I think I might have found a central thread, or at least another piece of the jigsaw. But I may still try a bit of drawing (I'm not very good at it, Michelle!) or collage. I feel more comfortable with collage, but we only have SB's fashion mags and New Scientist to tear up so it might produce an odd story!Stroppy Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560035800075465845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-12887034027048129452010-03-15T16:33:27.042+00:002010-03-15T16:33:27.042+00:00Oh yes,Ktherine, I remember doing that and thought...Oh yes,Ktherine, I remember doing that and thought it wasn't going to work but weirdly it does. Go on, try it!Linda Strachanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04354324158228109351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-62227461860970508592010-03-15T12:48:21.423+00:002010-03-15T12:48:21.423+00:00You might try Jenny Alexander's creative coll...You might try Jenny Alexander's creative collage exercise...<br /><br />Spend five minutes ripping images and headlines that appeal to you out of a stack of magazines (time yourself, because the idea is to do it quick enough to bypass your conscious mind). Then spend twenty minutes arranging and sticking them into a collage. I usually meditate for a minute on the question I want the collage to answer just before I start ripping.<br /><br />This might give you some clue how the bits fit together... not sure if this ssort of thing works for you, but I often find it helpful at the start of a project when I need to access my reclusive muse!Katherine Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-15050536970907684902010-03-15T08:13:17.111+00:002010-03-15T08:13:17.111+00:00You have so many talents, not sure if drawing is o...You have so many talents, not sure if drawing is one of them? Suspect it is. Here is something that I do, often with translations, and sometimes with English text that is palely loitering on the screen without any birds singing: try closing the computer and getting some white paper without lines. And DRAW images of what you are thinking about. Then you can reinterpret the pictures back into words. It is worth a try. Better still, take the white paper out into the garden. It can work, can refocus, can force your idea to swim through another medium and develop some muscles that way. What a seething pot of mixed metaphors! Sorry! I hope so much your idea finds its way through.michelle lovrichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01026972300195225090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-21414236119875648972010-03-14T21:32:56.641+00:002010-03-14T21:32:56.641+00:00Linda, that sounds exactly like my experience with...Linda, that sounds exactly like my experience with my latest, The Opposite of Amber. It seemed to be a bunch of unconnected ramblings at one point, but at the lowest point of despair it suddenly clicked, and turned into a real story. It's such a horrible feeling, but it's always nice to know you're not alone. Don't panic, Anne, it'll come together, you know it will! The story's just playing hard to get. In the end it'll be True Lurve.Gillian Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17775401199564200537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-55901011655200124172010-03-14T21:23:23.727+00:002010-03-14T21:23:23.727+00:00I had a similar problem with my latest book (comin...I had a similar problem with my latest book (coming out in June). I had no idea what I was doing, not that I usually plan a lot but I normally know something about the character(s) at the beginning and often what will happen at the end. <br />I knew I had to write something so I just sat down and wrote anything that came into my head, for three solid weeks. <br /><br />I hardly even looked back at any of it and several times I almost gave up and threw it all away. But amazingly it all seemed to fall into place in the end. After the three weeks were over I left it for a while then came back and finished it and re-wrote bits but the story was there by then.<br /><br /> It was weird but perhaps it might work for you, too?<br /><br /><br />Dead Boy Talking - June 2010- Strident PublishingLinda Strachanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04354324158228109351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-76445204128502839042010-03-14T21:09:56.712+00:002010-03-14T21:09:56.712+00:00I wonder if this isn't exactly what your story...I wonder if this isn't exactly what your story is about... a sense of vagueness and shadows, Anne? Perhaps how its emerging is the way it has to be written. You talk about footprints in the mud. That in itself is a very powerful symbol suggesting something that has gone before but also a path ahead. Is it a diary perhaps where you can dip back and forth? Maybe the reader is not sure who the diarist is. <br />Of course all this is rubbish advice to someone so adept as you. I think what I'm trying to say is give yourself some grace. Meander at will. This is how organic stories go and sometimes they surprise us. Keep the vagueness... its part of your story.Dianne Hofmeyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222157214605257030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-64461968251478555452010-03-14T19:20:38.649+00:002010-03-14T19:20:38.649+00:00I'm never short of ideas, only time. And I th...I'm never short of ideas, only time. And I think there's a connection. If I have only an hour to write, and most days I do, I make sure I make use of it. Even if I write rubbish. Too much freedom, whether it's with time to write, or choice of subject matter, isn't always such a good thing.Andrew Stronghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04875188855955154864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-6437887308165644562010-03-14T13:21:32.284+00:002010-03-14T13:21:32.284+00:00Well, I can't offer any help, but I can sympat...Well, I can't offer any help, but I can sympathize. I'm going through the exact same thing right now. I finished my current novel and am moving on to the next. I keep throwing words at the screen and nothing sticks. <br /><br />I actually have a good idea, one that should work, but I can't seem to get into it to make it happen so I'm thinking it's the wrong one. As far as anything else goes though, I have nothing. <br /><br />So, I completely feel your pain!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-47667847455305921592010-03-14T11:58:45.794+00:002010-03-14T11:58:45.794+00:00You've obviously identified a fairly common ex...You've obviously identified a fairly common experience, Anne. Before I read the comments of the others I was also thinking 'that's just what's been happening to me lately'. Maybe it's something to do with fluoride in the water. My not yet WIP has been bubbling annoyingly without a focus. I've done some research, started putting threads together, blogged about it, but the central raison d'ĂȘtre hasn't been there. Then suddenly, a couple of days ago - there it was. It made sense and drew all the other stuff together. But that just uncovers the next problem - I now have to write it.Bill Kirtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07675643113010061969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-35234224710284722672010-03-14T11:15:19.029+00:002010-03-14T11:15:19.029+00:00Your blog title reminded me of a new member of my ...Your blog title reminded me of a new member of my creative writing group. She recently apologised because she thought that what she had written was wrong, it not being exactly on the topic we'd been discussing. I soon reassured her. Creative writing flows in the way it has to flow and nothing is wrong.<br /><br />Your dilemma is similar to the one I've been discussing in my own blog this week. You have used the analogy of mercury (I too remember playing with it on a school work bench. Horrors!) I have used the analogy of trying to close your fingers around an elusive dream or reaching out to a rainbow. Maybe your ideas have not yet matured enough to be herded together. Maybe, to mix a metaphor, they need time to ferment. <br /><br />Good luck with your reluctant muse and I'll keep battling with my elusive 'just out of fingertip reach' story line... and long may ideas seep out of every surface.Rosalind Adamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05363027308436257933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-71063480424098666492010-03-14T10:22:14.317+00:002010-03-14T10:22:14.317+00:00Thank you, Pen - I wasn't clear. That's ho...Thank you, Pen - I wasn't clear. That's how I used to write, from an odd but clear snippet. Now I have a collection of vague feelings, shadows of images. It feels more as though I have to have the bigger picture fixed and then home in on the details - but I've never done that!Stroppy Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560035800075465845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780182174577095197.post-26944961799045902132010-03-14T09:41:10.594+00:002010-03-14T09:41:10.594+00:00What you have described is not the way I write now...What you have described is not the way I write now, but I used to write something like this. I'd have a scene, a snippet of a conversation, something small which seemed to go nowhere, but it was enough to intrigue me. <br /><br />What should you do?<br /><br />I suggest to take this little ... whatever it is ... and start writing about it. <br />Start painting with words the scene you see, the people, the smells, that tastes, or just the dialogue if that's all you have, and see what happens. Usually a story will begin to unfurl. <br /><br />It can't hurt to try. <br /><br />Good luck and happy writing! :)Penhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06605428306080473273noreply@blogger.com