New Quote

As part of my retooling efforts on the old blog here, I found a new quote to go with my new sub-theme of inspiration. "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." - Jack London (1876 - 1916). I think that fits perfectly. Inspiration is a necessity, but you can't just wait on it. You have to make it happen. You have to keep your senses alert. Be ready to receive whatever it may be that will inspire your next writing.



Of course, if you plan ahead, you may not have to track it down and beat it with that club London mentions. If I get inspired by a snatch of conversation I overhear in a restaurant, I try to either write down the actual conversation, or the idea that it gave me. I carry a small notebook with me, nothing fancy. I write one idea per page, adn I number each idea. Sometimes, I may realize that two of my ideas will work together, and I give them both the same number, that way, when I go back through looking at my little idea file, I'll know to work those two or three or four things together.

If you write down all your little inspirations, when you go to start a new project, you won't have to wait for new inspiration ot hit you, and you won't have to go chasing any down with a club, either. You'll already have your inspiration and your ideas.

I find I can't write something unless I'm really inspired by the idea of it, or something that I'm looking forward to in it. Get inspired, and work to make sure it happens.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON:
Apparently the blog is good for my writing. I've been working on my "Stranded by the Devil" idea more since I posted here the other day. I previously had 12 or 13 chapters written, but I couldn't go forward with it as it was (at that point, I was already rewriting a shorter first draft). So now I'm Draft #3, and I've almost gotten through all the material I had written in Draft #2. I currently ahve about 8500 words, with another 2-3,000 to rewrite. I'm enjoying it more, and looking forward to where it's going.

I hesitate to compare it to anything, especially what I am about to compare it to, but I can't stop myself. If I had to compare "Stranded by the Devil" to anything, it woudl probably be "lost boy lost girl" by Peter Straub, but don't get the wrong idea. I didn't like that book at all, and I'm not sure why. It's not the style to Straub that's similar, and it's not the content or story. I'm not sure what it is. It may be that "lost boy lost girl" is kind of open-ended, as mine may end up being.

(For the record, "Stranded by the Devil" is just a working title that I probably can't make work for the book. In Drafts #1 and 2, "Stranded by the Devil" was the name of the blog kept by the main character Kennedy. If I keep the blog in Draft #3 at all, it won't be prominent, and I can't use that for the name. But I liek it, so it'll stay my work-in-progress name.)

MY INSPIRATION TODAY:
This may sound ridiculous, but it was the movie "Planet Terror." Robert Rodriguez is a film genius. The Grindhouse movies he worked on with Quentin Tarrantino are made to look like old-school horror movies. I didn't care for Tarrantino's contribution, but Planet Terror was really cool. I loved all the effects making it look old. In his 10 Minute Film School on the Bonus Features disc, Rodriguez talks about how he used the aging effects mostly in scenes where tension was building, and then through the following fights. It worked great.

How does it inspire me? Not with a specific idea. I think the zombie genre is getting a little crowded for me, probably not something I want to do. OK, I've tried, but I don't think I can write using a monster someone else has used -- including vampires and werewolves. I think there's too much lore involved with all of them and I can't bring myself to disregard it, and then I don't want to mess with it. No, Planet Terror didn't inspire me to write a zombie novel. But I think I would like to write a good old-fashioned monster book, someday. Like 1940's or 50's pulp style. A classic horror story. It'd be a lot of fun, and be a tribute at the same time. Sounds like fun, right?