I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the
workings behind the stories I’m writing at the moment – or have already
written. People often ask me (and most writers or writerly types) “Where do you
get your ideas”? The thing is, I rarely know. Most of the time an idea just
pops into my head from seemingly nowhere. “Here but for Grace”, another WIP,
started when I saw how awful I looked in a dressing room mirror. Another idea
gets planted while I’m on the treadmill and staring at the opposite wall –
usually a good time for world or story building! This week I’ll focus on the
main story I’m busy with at the moment.
WIP – Stolen Time –
Behind the scenes
So, where did that
story idea come from? “Stolen Time” is a sci-fi short story, set in the not too
far future. The light bulb lit up when I heard about someone being sentenced to
quite a couple of years in prison. Add some ponderings about time while washing
the dishes and voila! A story which has nothing to do with the original people,
crime or judge is born…
When the main character takes the blame for a crime someone
else committed, he gets thrown into a hopeless world and starts to wonder
whether what he did was really worth it. Throw in a bit of freaky technology, a
couple of corrupt officials, questions about justice, life and death – and who
deserves either of these – I’ve given myself quite a story to write.
Why write it then?
Because, now that I’ve started the story, I need to see how
it ends. I need to answer these questions myself, for myself. It’s really as
simple as that. The story needs to get
out, it needs to be told. By writing a story, I can take different
viewpoints (some very unlike my own sometimes), measure each, see how they will
work in a certain context and have a jol
doing it.
Research can be fun –
and disturbing
All went well until I reached about 2,500 words. The main
character was established, the world was established enough for the first draft
and I had reached one of the main scenes of the story – a death scene. Basically,
it is the death of someone whom you might say deserve it. You weren’t supposed
to feel very sorry for him when I set out to write it. But, when it came to
writing the scene, I found I couldn’t make it a black and white scene. Gray
entered and, with it, more conflict (which I guess is a good thing). So, I
scribbled some margin notes and continued on, but then I realised I needed to
know more about human decomposition timelines than I’ve learned from shows such
as Medical Detectives, NCIS and the
like.
After some reading I wish I did before having gone through the trouble of making dinner – I did
manage to write a decent first draft of the scene. The biggest problem with
this scene will be balance – the last thing I want is a gore-fest slapped in
the middle of the story. There’s a certain amount of gore which I’m comfortable
with writing (or even reading), but there is also the right amount of gore for
a specific story. If you’re not setting out to do a “lone hitchhiker with a
love of chainsaws and the colour red” story, there’s really no need to go
all-out with the gore factor. I’m quite happy to leave the details to the
reader’s imagination. After all, when you write about decapitated human heads
being catapulted over a city wall, you don’t need to write about every blood
spatter[1].
This is probably one of the scenes I’ll have to edit or rewrite the most once
I’m done with the draft.
All in all, I had a good writing night – about 800 words
after all the research. Tonight, I’ll tackle the next two (luckily) corpse-free
scenes. And maybe even enjoy dinner tonight!
[1] If you’re going WHAT! o.0 at this
moment; this happens in Lord of the
Rings: Return of the King. And no, every speck of blood isn’t described.
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