Creative Process
I Was Paying Attention Today…
For a moment, at the beginning of the new story, because I was tired. Only lasted a paragraph or two before I went down into the story, but figured this might be interesting to a few of you.
I started off with my half-title sheets like normal. Saw the phrase “The Last” and then a couple of pages later, keeping the phrase “The Last” in my mind, my creative voice spotted “Summer Girl.”
“The Last Summer Girl”
Depending on how the story went, I could hyphenate Last-Summer to change the meaning. Fun title.
No idea of a series jumped to mind, so I just started typing… Here is what came out for the first line…
“When you are a serial killer, you really have to be careful to not kill the same person twice.”
Okay, that’s fun. So I wrote the next line in the first paragraph…
“But I was distracted and things happen.”
Right at that point. my creative voice said, “Oh, fun! First person serial killer with attitude and voice.”
Next paragraph was setting, but the nasty little phrase “… at this point in time.” snuck in.
Creative voice said “Even more fun. Time traveling serial killer with attitude and voice.”
And that is the last thing I remember until surfacing when the story was done. Normally my creative voice isn’t that out front in the opening of stories. But for this one it was and figured I would share it. You can read the finished story in two or three weeks. Story #24 in 24 days.
Lifetime to The WMG Writer Store workshops…
Still got a couple spots open at the start-up discount. Read yesterday’s blog and write me if interested.
And one spot still open for the Lifetime In-Person classes before we shut that down again. Write me again if interested.
One Comment
S. H. Miah
It’s interesting because this exact thing happens to me sometimes. My creative voice will pick out something specific I wrote and tug me towards following that narrative thread, but it’s like my critical voice is battling it. (“No, that idea’s a bit too out there, why not play it safe with what you know you’re good at? You don’t wanna flop it by extending too far, do you?”)
I think it’s made worse by a childhood of parents punishing creativity in favour of following the ‘standard’ path of life, God knows.
Thankfully I’ve been winning those creative-critical battles lately, and my stories are all the better for it!
Thanks for the insightful post, Dean, as always.