Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The "Post-It notes" of creativity

My good friend, Wil Wheaton, the famous author/actor (who has, of course, never heard of me) has made several mentions in his blog of a website devoted to "ficlets," which are very very short stories, or parts of stories. I haven't given it much thought... OK, I lie, I've given it lots of thought. I like to write. I'd love to write a novel. But I can't seem to get past the opening paragraphs. The entire plot is in my head, but when it comes to writing, my methods betray me. You see, I've always written "in final." I don't do drafts. I don't do outlines. I write, and I edit on the fly, and I craft my writing as I go. And, as I go, I second-guess myself about what I've already written. So I go back and change. Then I put it back to how it was. Then I tweak. And before you know it I've spent 3 hours on 3 paragraphs. Grr.

So I've decided to take one of those beginnings and release it into the wild. Because one of the cool things about the Ficlets concept is this: once you write your bit and post it, anyone can add to it, in similar short bits. You're limited to 1,024 characters for any post, whether beginning, sequel, or prequel.

It's kind of like that campfire story game, where one person starts, and as they tell the story, they'll say, "And just as he was about to leave, " and the next person picks up the story...

Anyway, if you're curious, my first foray is here. It's not going to get my novel written, but it's a start.

2 comments:

Susie H said...

WEnt to read it. I like it! WIll be interesting to see if someone adds on...

Christa said...

I read it too and agree it's interesting. Just so you're aware, it says to back up your work because they're closing down...

...but maybe you knew that.