This isn’t going to make any sense. That’s okay. It makes sense to me, and I have to write it so I can get back to work. These are things in my head that I need to put down so they’ll get out of my way and let me finish my script:
I have this idea that there are all these stories racing around the multiverse, and they try real hard be brought into life by a writer, a photographer, a musician, or some other creative person. They’re fickle, though: they’ll knock on your door for a little bit, but if you don’t make an effort to open it for them, they’ll take off and find someone else to grant them access to our world. Writing them down in a notebook will get them to stick around for a little bit longer.
I also look at storytelling like a cable that runs through spacetime. Grab a cable and it’ll take you to the place you want to go and reveal the story to you along the way, but you’ve got to hold on real tight, and you can really only hold on to one at a time. It’s okay to jot down where you saw other cables in your notebook while you pass them, though.
Then there’s the log jams, which is where I’ve been the last three days.
You know that old cartoon with the logger who keeps saying, “This one, she holds up the whole log jam!” The camera reveals a gigantic pile of logs, hundreds of them at least, and they’re all stuck behind this one log that’s holding them together, preventing them from falling down and unleashing some mayhem. I think it’s Woody Woodpecker, and he wants the one important log for a house or something.
Well, I’ve had this logjam. I don’t think of it as a block, because I have my structure all in place, I know where my guys are going, and I know how the whole thing ends . . . I’ve just been stuck on this one very important thing . . . that happens to be in act one. I can’t just skip past it and come back later, because the way I handle this particular thing will affect everything else in the story.
I’m not going to go into specifics, but it was frustrating the hell out of me. I’ve written and thrown away hundreds of words and dozens of pages while I tried to work it out.
About an hour ago, the one log that held up the log jam fell down. I figured out what to do in act one, and in the ensuing pile of apparently random logs, I found a lot of other ideas that I will probably use in the rest of the story.
This is a huge relief to me, because I can finally dash out the door and grab a cable now. Be back later.