Last night in yoga class I wrote through savasana (the relaxation period) which is sort of an asshole move but I had a lot of ideas forming and reforming in my head. This time off from my main focus being writing has been good for my brain. My day job is a solid 9-5, give or take, so I’m not spending so much time there that I’m taking it home with me once I walk out the door. (In advertising I’d regularly work late, and when you’re trapped in an office till 7 or 8 a night it’s hard to get charged up to Think Literature. Unless you’re 22. Which I am not.) So I still want to write some but don’t need to feel as stressed about creating a final product. (Though I am sure I will be stressed soon enough.)
Anyway I am thinking a lot about breaking chapters down into really short bites, and having them operate in specific forms, i.e. certain chapters could only exist as dialogue between two specific characters, and certain chapters could only exist as monologues from one specific character, and so forth, and those would be the only forms available to use. I’m trying figure out if it would be purposeful for the big storytelling picture. Also I can’t decide if it would totally suck for the reader beyond it perhaps being interesting for a minute.
I don’t know why I am making up all these rules. In part it is because I don’t know what I want to have happen yet in the story. Like I know who the characters are but I’m not sure what they’re doing so it’s easier just to think about what games I can play with the words. Yea…it’s just a game for my brain, making these rules. Eventually I will break the rules.
I like the idea of making things hard and then easy. You have to work through all the tricky shit to get to the other side.
