I was sitting in the library at school, thinking about what I might want to write when school is out. I'd like to focus on some short stories since those would be easier to get published and they take less time. Mostly they take less time.
And that got me thinking about what I would want to write. I didn't know. I don't know who I am as a writer. Or if a distinction is even necessary. I think back to the novels I've started:
One a story about a world destroyed by people suddenly given super powers, and the realization of one "villain" that things can't go on this way. The story would follow him as he tries to rebuild his own piece of the world and the challenges that follow. I like this story for a few reasons. First being I love comics. I've been thinking about drawing a lot recently and think this would be a fun project to work with. Not drawing the whole thing, just designing the characters and world. Second, I love comics. What person that loves comics hasn't thought about creating their own heroes and villains? Third, because, as I've said before, I want to write a story about how powers affect people and the world. It isn't about the powers, it's about what happens. What does it do to a society when there are people who can shapeshift and destroy entire city blocks as easy as whispering. I think that sounds awesome.
I wrote a short story about a teenage girl named Faye. She was a suicidal girl going through some stuff. What didn't come out in the story is the mythology. In norse mythology, valkyries can turn into swans, and if you catch a valkyrie and pull a feather while she is in "bird form," she is honor bound to grant you a wish. My valkyrie, call her Ally, had this happen, and the man, as in fairytales, was so enraptured of the woman, that he could only ask for one thing. As a result, Ally has a child who she names Faye. A daughter that she loves grudgingly and never wanted. Ally was a favorite of Odin's, but once she has a child, she's required to remain on Earth. She can't go back to Valhalla until she dies, which is another thing she sees when she look at Faye. Faye doesn't know why there's this distance between mother and daughter. Faye in the story I wrote uses her mother's distance to seek trouble. None of the mythology stuff came out in what I produced. It felt like the story worked without it, but I don't want it to, and I want to go back and make the mythology stuff so integral that I can't imagine taking it out.
I started a novel about a man named Swift. He was a troubled youth, smart, but stuck in the wrong neighborhood, with the wrong friends. I consider him a bizarro-me. It's my attempt at social commentary, and how some people are just born into the wrong life and can't escape. I think, if I do say so myself, that my first line is brilliant, "It rained the day they put me out of jail." He's an extremely difficult character to write since any lapse in voice is telling immediately and doesn't sound right. He's surrounded by complex characters. But his story is one I want to write because I don't think it works out well for him. That's probably just my cynicism talking, but it's how I feel. Things don't work out for most people, no matter how hard they try. This one has more of a literary bent to it.
And then I've got my memoir, and a fantasy novel, and a bunch of fairy tale ideas. And...I just don't know what I want to write. Or if I even have to write any one thing. I'm just going to write what I want.
#writingisdumb
