I spend the “awake but not up” portion of the very early morning thinking about an idea I had yesterday for Book V.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All along I’ve had a particular vision of what happens when Mmmph and Ummph meet.\u00a0 It’s been stable through the other books, but I had a bright idea.\u00a0\u00a0 What if Rrrmph and Mmmph were connected?\u00a0 What if Rrrmph wanted to do A and Mmmph wanted to do B, and then Ummph never met Mmmph in the same circumstances…???<\/p>\n
Last night, after I got home, that seemed a perfect idea.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This morning, in the cold light before sunrise, not so much.\u00a0\u00a0 Because if this, and then that, then the other important thing…wouldn’t happen.\u00a0\u00a0 And it has to.\u00a0\u00a0 Because that other important thing is connected to what I call the Deep Logic of this story-universe and this particular story.\u00a0\u00a0 So it has to be conserved, unless something else has a better connection to the Deep Logic.\u00a0\u00a0 Yesterday’s bright idea doesn’t.\u00a0\u00a0 It goes down three levels (so to speak) but after that its root is dangling in the air, refusing to sink into the deep logic.\u00a0 So far.<\/p>\n
This is not the first bright idea to hit the rotating blades of reflective thought.\u00a0\u00a0 “Ideas” are great, and important, but they aren’t the core of writing fiction.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rather like Churchill, I can spout bright ideas by the dozens, but…many of them aren’t good<\/em> bright ideas.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They’re just fairy-dust,\u00a0 sparkly and dancing in the air at first, but useless in the end.<\/p>\n Writers are (still!<\/em>) often asked where they get their ideas.\u00a0\u00a0 We all have stock answers; they’re all partly true and partly wrong.\u00a0\u00a0 (Mine is “dust bunnies of the mind.”)\u00a0\u00a0 And we all know that “having an idea” for a story or book (or part of a story or book) isn’t the answer to writing<\/em> the story or book.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The bright idea needs to be eyed critically–interviewed, tested, made to show its potential in the real world, then enlisted in the work of story-telling.<\/p>\n The real bright idea–the one that belongs in the story–will stand any amount of hammering on the anvil.\u00a0\u00a0 Will link immediately to other story elements at every level from surface to Deep Logic.\u00a0 It becomes both surprising and inevitable…”Wow, didn’t see that<\/em> coming, but…of course<\/em>!”\u00a0 pretty much defines the real bright idea.\u00a0\u00a0 (Other instances of “Wow, didn’t see that<\/em> coming…”) are not the result of sudden bright ideas but of slogging until “that” hits the writer over the head via the character.\u00a0\u00a0 You can’t tell the difference afterward. )<\/p>\n The fairy-dust\/fools’ gold bright ideas promise a lot (they have their Phi Beta Kappa keys, their MBAs of MFAs from the right schools,\u00a0 their appropriate interview attire, etc.) but once you stick them into the dirty reality of story-making, they…quit.\u00a0\u00a0 They don’t link up.\u00a0 They don’t root down to the Deep Logic.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And the sooner the writer realizes this and discards the shiny-sparkly thing, the better.\u00a0\u00a0 Overnight is really fast.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes I write a chapter or two of Mr\/Ms Bright Idea before realizing that nope,\u00a0 this one’s a loser.<\/p>\n There are elements of yesterday’s bright idea I’d like to save and use.\u00a0 Not the whole thing, but this especially sparkly bit right here…surely it’s true-gold.\u00a0\u00a0 Or maybe not.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The answer’s in the writing.\u00a0 Sinking into the POV character and reaching down through the character for the Deep Logic from which true characters arise.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Throw things at the character–that other character, that other event, even the fabled team of ninjas crashing through the door–and see if the reactions are related to the bright idea.\u00a0 If not…it’s just another bright idea that looks a lot dimmer in the daylight.<\/p>\n So far, the morning’s writing hasn’t reawakened the sparkly-shiny part of yesterday’s bright idea except in the writer’s ego.\u00a0\u00a0 I still think it’s a really bright idea.\u00a0 But it’s not the right<\/em> idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I spend the “awake but not up” portion of the very early morning thinking about an idea I had yesterday for Book V.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All along I’ve had a particular vision of what happens when Mmmph and Ummph meet.\u00a0 It’s been stable through the other books, but I had a bright idea.\u00a0\u00a0 What if Rrrmph and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,5],"tags":[62,107],"class_list":["post-1519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","category-the-writing-life","tag-craft-of-writing","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1519"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1521,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519\/revisions\/1521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}