i hit the slump sunday morning. i struggled thro that day, and most of monday. monday night i ran into a friend. "please help me! i cant figure out where to go next, and i'm so frustrated!" i sobbed. my friend looked at me like i'd lost my mind. "well it might help if i knew where you were...." so i started to give him a rough outline of where i had left off, and how i needed a clue for a mystery. before the words were fully out of my mouth, he was drawing on a napkin showing me how the clue should work.
i thanked him profusely and ran back to write it up. (well i ate dinner first, but that's beside the point.) when i got to my notebook, i realized he had only given me half the clue; i still needed to work out the rest.
but i also realized something else. many of my characters are based on real people, and the character who invents that clue, is based on the friend who showed me the clue. too cool, eh? well guess what...my friend had given me exactly what his character had, no more no less.
i turned to another friend who was in the room with me; i laughed and told her what had happened, then complained that i was still stuck on the other half of the clue. being the patient person that she is, she offered to help with the rest of the clue. she asked for the storyline surrounding it; i started to tell her, and we both cracked up laughing. you guessed it: that part of the plot is decided by a character who is based on her.
we had a great evening exploring that part of the mystery (in way more detail than i will ever need), and the slump improved a lot. (the laughter probably had a lot to do with it.)
there is something to be said for letting your characters talk to you ;)
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i hit the slump sunday morning. i struggled thro that day, and most of monday. monday night i ran into a friend. "please help me! i cant figure out where to go next, and i'm so frustrated!" i sobbed. my friend looked at me like i'd lost my mind. "well it might help if i knew where you were...." so i started to give him a rough outline of where i had left off, and how i needed a clue for a mystery. before the words were fully out of my mouth, he was drawing on a napkin showing me how the clue should work.
i thanked him profusely and ran back to write it up. (well i ate dinner first, but that's beside the point.) when i got to my notebook, i realized he had only given me half the clue; i still needed to work out the rest.
but i also realized something else. many of my characters are based on real people, and the character who invents that clue, is based on the friend who showed me the clue. too cool, eh? well guess what...my friend had given me exactly what his character had, no more no less.
i turned to another friend who was in the room with me; i laughed and told her what had happened, then complained that i was still stuck on the other half of the clue. being the patient person that she is, she offered to help with the rest of the clue. she asked for the storyline surrounding it; i started to tell her, and we both cracked up laughing. you guessed it: that part of the plot is decided by a character who is based on her.
we had a great evening exploring that part of the mystery (in way more detail than i will ever need), and the slump improved a lot. (the laughter probably had a lot to do with it.)
there is something to be said for letting your characters talk to you ;)