Cool Breakthrough

I've been beating my head with a story for the last couple of days--something I'd started months ago and liked it but had to move away from it to work on other things. So when I finished whatever it was I just finished, I brought it back out. I still liked the writing, still liked a part of the concept...but it was definitely lacking something. And then I realized, it had no conflict, not really. But I couldn't seem to come up with a conflict that didn't feel tacked on.

But I just did. After distracting myself with different online forums, games like Hearts that I'd thought I'd gotten over years ago, house- and yard-work, and other mindless stuff, I finally figured out how to get a logical conflict in, and the ending came quickly. I don't think it's a perfect story by any means yet--now I have to go back to the beginning and layer in other stuff, build up properly toward the ending, and all that. But I'm just pleased by how the denouement worked out for me. I'll figure that other stuff out tomorrow.

Now...I'm doing some world building for a new project. I must be crazy.

Comments

Celina Summers said…
don't forget the sentient chinchillas for your new world, Dan. I want one to be cussing me when I wring its little neck to make my new coat. ;)
Michael said…
Nice, Dan. You seem to post stuff like I do on my blog: all about my writing, of course!

I know what it's like to struggle with a story. I just finished a draft of one recently, where I had worried over how to end it for a long time. I've got another I've been working on just as long, where I had a problem similar to yours: how to work in the conflict. I think I've figured out what I want do with it, but I have yet to get around to writing it.

Good luck with your world building!
Daniel Ausema said…
Thanks, both of you. Celina, I have to admit that I'm rethinking the chinchilla thing, though I do intend it to have herds of domesticated wildebeests, with their version of cowboys riding around on zebras.

And thanks for stopping by, Michael--and congrats on your first issue of Tower of Light coming out. Best of luck with it!
Michael said…
Thanks, Daniel. I appreciate it very much. I hope you the 'zine.