Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Our own fictional straight jacket...

When I sat down to write today I felt incredibly blocked. Some mumbo jumbo about british royalty, time travel, and lost siblings- blah blah- was basically slamming the breaks on my WIP.

I keep thinking over and over- how am I going to make this all work. I've brainstormed in the car, in the shower, during many a day dream, etc... I've been waiting for some kind of epiphany on the matter since 2004- and I just can't (and I hate the word can't- in fact I don't even believe it exists) figure it out.

And then after almost five years of trying make something work I realized- why does it have to be that way. Why contrain myself to specific fictional parameters that I made up? Isn't this all imaginary anyway? Does it really have to be the 1480s? Or that specific prince? No it doesn't.

So I turned the prince into a pirate and voila-I'm back in business folks.

8 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh I love that! I think I'll remember that the next time I'm stuck. "Just turn the prince into a pirate!"

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  2. That's the great thing about being writers.

    We Are God.

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  3. It may be cool in theory. But now I have to research pirates. The only thing I know about pirates is from Pirates of the Caribbean. Sad.

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  4. Hey, Johnny Depp's one pretty slick pirate.

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  5. I did masses of research into pirates for my first novel. It's all a bit hazy now but feel free to fire questions at me -- I might even be able to answer them:)

    My core text was this one:

    http://www.amazon.com/Under-Black-Flag-Romance-Reality/dp/081297722X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258577938&sr=1-1

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  6. Thanks for joining Ghost Folk and making it a whopping 26! Woot! Woot!
    Also, Thomas THANK YOU so much for recommending that book about pirates! I need some help fo' sho'!

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