Thought stimulating Porlock Visitor Centre feature in West Somerset
While writing my latest short fiction story, writing block set in about half way through.
I’d set up the situation, felt happy about the characters and the general tone of the story but suddenly I had no idea about how I wanted to end the story.
Part of the reason may have been that I was tired. I’d been writing all morning and the day before had been writing for about nine hours. But I needed to get the story finished because I had mountains of web site stuff to deal with that couldn’t wait. Leaving a story midway is not a good idea for me because I tend to lose interest and it never gets finished.
So I was trying to cudgel my brain as to what to do. Then I remembered a writing tip I once put on the web:
In my experience, ideas usually surface in the course of doing something unrelated, so my best tip on how to write great creative short stories is to live your life to the full - enjoy yourself! A darkened room lit only by a dim and solitary lamp may sound romantic but will probably do nothing for your creative fluids. Instead go out into the world - walk the streets, visit cafeterias, play sport. Do the things you love - have fun. And here’s the secret. While you are having all this fun, observe people and situations as you go. Imagine a robber walking into your cafe or a handsome man or beautiful woman. Look at the people around you. How would they react? What would happen then? What would they think and feel? Have they secrets to hide and why is your hero there? In a flash, the creative fluids will flow. Your mind will be bursting with ideas.
If you want to read more about this, checkout these writing ideas
So I switched off my computer, left my dark and gloomy North facing room, jumped in the car and went for a walk around the nearby small town of Porlock.
Each shop I saw was woven temporarily into the fabric of the short story and then discarded. The museum stimulated thoughts that potentially completely changed the direction of the story. The people that walked past became new characters for an instant.
Writers are dreamers. It’s the biggest criticism of me that my friends can make:
“Rob you’re just a dreamer!”
I cringe with embarrassment and wish I could think of some positive action that I could take to change the universe, my country’s destiny or at least my financial fortunes.
But why should I try to change my nature? Dreaming is what I like to do. I even do it quite well, unlike others who have never had a creative (or crazy, unrealistic, balmy, daft) thought in their lives. No doubt they will be far better than me at business, making a living, survival, earning a crust than I ever will. But, hey! My minds a beautiful place to juggle ideas, characters, concepts and short story scenarios and I love doing it!
Amazingly, by the time I had walked for half an hour, I was refreshed and had sorted out how I wanted the story to end. So I jumped back into my old beat up Ford Escort and hightailed it home before I forgot the changes I wanted to make. I ended the day exhausted but happy to have completed the short story.
See how you like it. You can find it here:
Piano Accordions and Chat Rooms
All best
Rob
