Half Baked...

Last night as we were heading to bed we had a massive storm roll through. Tons of rain and wind. So I had a hard time falling asleep. Then I still woke up at 2 AM (guessing, I don't look at the clock, so I actually have no idea but it feels like 2 so I always think it's 2) as usual. Then cat napped my way to Brent waking up.

While all of this not sleeping was going on I was thinking about stories and writing and I got a great idea. For the rest of the year (along with other pieces) I would do a holiday type series. A set of characters doing things around the holidays. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, maybe Veteran's Day and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa as well, I don't know who they are yet so it could be any or all of them.

I really like the idea. The only problem is I have no stories for them. I have an idea of a story framework, but no people, no dialog, no situations, not even a vision of an interaction.

I have my Christmas people, the set of four stories that started with I Believe (do you all remember them?) and I sort of have a group of Halloween characters that have come in and out of stories, but nothing as tied as the I Believe group. But I Believe started with an idea of an adult woman who believed in Santa Claus and then the people around her wanted to talk too, not as an idea to write a Christmas series. Even the twin Santa and Krampus stories I have started with an image and then spun from there. I had no intention of writing Santa and Krampus paired stories.

But I do like the idea of a Holiday Series. That's why I'm writing this blog right now. I'm getting that inner brain spinning going. I want it to become a real tangible idea so if I get some words on paper it might help that along. That's the idea anyway.

The writing process is a weird one for me. I've written about it before. I want to be published, not just me posting something and saying, "TA DA published!", but someone else out there in the wide world saying, "Yeah, this should be published." But on the other hand I don't care about making money off of my stuff. I don't care about finding a bigger audience.

But part of me is like I want the recognition that I am good at this. Which then I stop and think, Why? I think I'm good. Brent (who, by the way,  just walked by the study and said, "Write, Monkey write!" I'm including that because it made me laugh out loud and I think we all should laugh out loud a lot) thinks I'm good. A lot of the time you all reading this think what you've read is good. So why do I need anything else? And I don't. Not really. I think I'm good. That's the part that keeps me writing and hitting publish. And yet...I want that outside stranger to validate it just once. Even though I think I would get a hit of "YEAH!" that would last about a week and then I'd be back to writer world where I think I'm good (except on days that I'm sure I'm a fraud and what did that stranger know anyway I mean SOMEONE published Twilight and the accompanying fanfic 50 Shades so who are they to fucking judge me....) and well you see...

But part of becoming a successful published writer really seems to hinge on planning. You get story structure lined out. You write in your framework. Then you read. Then you have others read. Then you edit. Then you have others read again. Then you edit again. Then your editor and publisher take cracks at what you submit. Then you do it all again and again. And oh my god that sounds awful to me.

So I end up back here where I write and hit publish so quickly that a year or two later I read my own work and don't remember it!

And those are the thoughts I have to sweep away to make a series work in my head. The side tracks and windy paths that I start going down when what I really want is group of people who are connected somehow and how they navigate the holiday season and is it supernatural, or romance (I've done it, don't laugh), or just slice of life stuff, or a blend? Are they always together, or does it start with one and build? Or start with all and they separate and then come back together? Is it just my bar people? Or is it a family?

Or does this just slip away into the recesses of the notebook of ideas?

Because that happens a LOT! People sometimes give me ideas to write about, and often I take them and do a story that was NOT AT ALL what they had in mind when they gave me the idea, but more often it's not that I'm lacking in ideas, it's just that they are all just starters.

Half baked ideas.

I need some oven time.

But I'm too distracted by the raw cookie dough.

Holiday theme...

What are you people doing?

Who are you people?

Why should I care about you?

Do you even exist?

Welcome to the brain of a frustrated writer....

It's half baked.

(Winky face, half smile, emoji)