I can't just have the usual worries, fears, whatever, that keep people up all night, keeps them from sleeping even when they only had three hours the night before, then worked and have to work again today.Nope. Not me. The war. The economy. Injustice. Murders. Etc., etc. Nah, none of that keeps me up.
I have to come up with my own stuff, because apparently the real world just isn't frightening enough for me.
So, I'm in bed, trying to sleep, and an image comes into my head of a monster. I won't go into a lot of details because I might eventually use this (not that I'm afraid someone will steal my ideas, just that I like some of the ideas to be a surprise). Then I think about where the monster came from, how it got to where it is and what its purpose is ... why does it exist?
Can't stop there. Not just with one monster. My monster has buddies. Lots of buddies.
I lay in bed for almost three hours, thinking all these thoughts. I pull ideas from Lovecraft, King's "The Stand," Romero's zombie movies, Godzilla, The Lord of the Rings, other places and even some of my own writing. Then I mix it all together and see how it works. In modern America. NOT some fantasy land.
And after three hours of sleeplessness, without even trying, I realize I worked out most of the plot of a 500,000 word mega novel. Or maybe a series of shorter novels. Though I like the idea of the big novel better.
I've worked out all the major bad guys. I've worked out most of the good guys, the protagonists (yep, in a work this big there's going to be more than one). I've got a beginning, lots of middle, and something of an ending.
I have to curse myself. Oh, no. I just cooooouldn't go to sleep. I didn't have enough ideas in my head already. I just needed yet one more project to roll around in my brain, nagging at me to get to working on it.
Shit. And I wanted my next novel to be something simple and small.
No, I'm not planning to start working on this monster story. But now it's in my head. One of the reasons I'm writing about it here is because I don't want to forget it (which wasn't likely to happen anyway with a project this big).
I just have to wait and see how long, and how much, this story is going to nag at me. If it keeps it up like this, it's going to be a loooooong year.
um, ok. This post did not end up at where it started for, but that's okay man, I follow you.
ReplyDeleteBTW-I like all those little pix you stick in your posts - especially the other day's lightning.
haha! american monsters instead of american gods?
ReplyDeletei wish i could come up with novel ideas so easily. novel 2 is just a haze and any time i think about it too long, i get scared.
*runs and hides* 8)
Of course it doen't make sense. I wrote it at 5 in the morning after less than three hours of sleep.
ReplyDeleteAnd, in a way, it made sense to me.
So blah!
like doen't ?
ReplyDeletealthough I do like the word . . .
I think it's fantastic that you are able to come up with all these ideas - although in my brain I'm envisioning this crazy person holed up in a dark, creepy attic with ravens or some other equally mood-appropriate animal scratching around. Hah-ha! HvonD has all the creative juices flowing, too! Not me, just a boring accountant lacking sleep due to "normal" things like housing starts and the economy but having fun peeking in on your endeavors :)
ReplyDelete