ideas

If you have been reading my blog, you may know that I have been wrestling with a massive ten year case of writing block.  I've come to the conclusion that caring too much about writing the Great American Novel was truly dampening any creative urges I may have once had.  I'm starting over: remembering what I used to write about ten years ago, starting with baby steps, and keeping it light, focusing on what I want to say, rather than an end goal. 

So along these lines, I posted a question a few weeks back to some close friends, looking for topics.  Sometimes your friends can see what's perfectly obvious, like the nose on your face, which you can't.

can i take requests? what kind of novel would you *like* to read by me? what kind of story..... i'm feeling so stuck here, i'm going mad. *what do you want to read?*

m. writes:

hah! this is a great question, perhaps even a great start for a possible opening of a possible novel (if your novel plans to be somewhat postmodern in its projection and dis-assemblage, with a nice, modernist, classical twist at the end - just to take postmodern to the extreme...). i think you might be writing a novel about x and y (x and y being topics of choice and/or accident), combined with a meditation on the art of writing, which is always a tricky maneuver (any more tricky than writing just about anything?), but can be quite enticing.

j. sends:

1) sci-fi, but not the geeky techno kind. more like how bradbury or philip k dick did it. the issues are human, amplified and distorted by the futuristic setting.
2) historical (non-fiction) on your ancestors.
3) modern fiction set in england involving murder, mystery, and intrigue.

s. is looking for:

Balancing life, relationships, and careers?

y. muses:

I just went to a book reading Thursday night for a collection of essays by writers in their 20s and 30s about nature, edited by a '99er, Bonnie Tsui. I loved the essay excerpts that were read. So that's my current inspiration: something about nature. Not just as in camping, but also finding nature in the urban landscape, in the sidewalks and how it helps you orient yourself in the city. Learning to listen and see nature around you.

p. notes:

[...] stories about people..........

d. reiterates:

Same suggestion as last time...coming of age with your heart, not
your mind, in a post-Ivy league, hyperanalytical, power-paced world.

I'm marveling at all the ways I found to attribute quotes. :)

More significantly, it seems the lessons are: people want to read stories that are relevant to their lives, and that good storytelling still takes the cake. And the people that know and love me very deeply will want to read things which are very personal to me.  But I'm pretty shy...

I'd be curious to hear what the blog community thinks.  Any other requests? :)

Comments

[Min]

I think I do best when I write about things that is the most important to me, and this would be relationships between people (romantic or family-oriented).  I guess I write because I want to see that I'm not alone in my experience and also for others to know the same.  Deep, personal things are good!  But only at the amount you are comfortable sharing.

and I think it's amazing that you want to work on a novel.  I don't think I'm built to write novels or books--poetry, non-fiction essays, and short stories are definitely my kinda length.

[writebrained]

thanks min :)

btw, you are a *very* good writer.  the post about your mom and about summer school was excellent:  rich powerful language and very evocative.  if you keep writing like that, with rich, personal narrative... you might find that you could come back to this blog and pull out a bunch of posts, and HAVE a novel.  (or at least the core of one, which you could edit and shape without too much difficulty.)

definitely keep writing! :)

[xiaobubu006]

their swiss replica watches and then complain that their "piece of junk" will not work. If they had wound the replica Breitling watches just once in the morning they could have saved themselves a lot of hassle.Regular maintenance is import. So like your annual physical and periodic dental trips, schedule some time for your replica Cartier watches to be examined by a professiona