in which I whine about writing.

[mimesere]

So I keep getting caught in the details of things or not the details but the opposite of details. I don't know. I'm terrible at trees and I'm terrible at forests and I'm terrible at happy trees -- possibly trees is a stupid metaphor because I find them kind of scary, what with their tree-ness and all -- and the things I think I am good at are never the things that make a good story and I think I think too much. Or something. I don't know.


I have good ideas. like, that's not even me being a douche, I have pretty decent story ideas. No execution at all, but the ideas have...stuff. Whatsit. moxie. Let's call it that.

And I sometimes even have things I want to *say*, things I want to explore, feelings and dynamics and conflicts and metaphors and stuff, and it all just gets bogged down in detail and not detail because I blow at details. Like, show and not tell? I suck at that. I'm okay at broad comedy and I'm pretty good at um, justifying repeating day stories, and I'm decent at worldbuilding, and I'm pretty good I think with vampire dystopias but the little details of what people do or how they touch each other or describing things in a way which isn't lame -- that is where I lose.

Wow, this is whiny. I dunno. It's like sketching vs drawing.

I want to tell a story about how Patrick and Gerard hook up which is as much about how Patrick and Pete break up. And I want to tell a story about how Patrick and Pete hook up, which is as much about how they don't. I want to tell a story about Gunn in Chicago because LA isn't a place for him anymore and Chicago's close enough that he feels comfortable and far enough away that he's never going to. I want to tell a story about how Norrington loses his heart; how Wesley gets everything he ever wanted and loses it all every day; how Boromir lives; how Roy and Mia and Lian go on a roadtrip and play rock songs and hip hop and pop songs and sing along and talk about sex and stupid things they've done; how Gerard sees dead people and how that relates to the Zoot Suit Riots and the dedication of San Juan Capistrano in 1776; how Zelenka and McKay talk to ghosts of each other; how Norrington gets almost gets eaten by a ship and Jack saves him; how Superman drops by Gotham and smiles at Batman and says, "You missed me, I can tell," and Batman is all, "..." and that just makes Superman smile bigger; how Mahandra and Aaron save the day; how Josie and the Pussycats get signed by Pete Wentz; how Gunn, Wes, and Cordy are stuck in limbo or purgatory or hell and none of them know about it; how Zelenka leaves Atlantis for an extended research exchange and comes back temporarily telepathic and McKay tries to be nice but he's mostly just scared.

It's all stories and I like them, but I do not think they like me very much. it is sad. I am all emo.


t-minus almost 2 days.

Comments

[halfacork.livejournal.com]

I like you!

And your stories!

[thelionforreal.livejournal.com]

you have excellent emo influences, i think.

also, you can write this. you can. i know you can write whatever you want. you have to know it, or something.

and hullo those who are emo write. don't they?

could've sworn that wine and one and four made two, but it's five.

[zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com]

You could try just rewriting stuff bigger, until you are comfortable with the level of detail. Like, so what you wrote up there is the first pass. Then go rewrite that phrase with a complete sentence. Then expand the sentence to a paragraph. Then the paragraph to a page. Up until the point where you've told as muich story as is necessary.