Bart Simpson
I was hoping to get writing done at night during my son’s spring break. In fact, I mentioned that being the plan at least once. Somebody should have smacked me and reminded me that such things never happen. Far too tired at night to get anything more than twitching done. Kind of annoyed here since I wanted to get into the next chapter of Protecting Bedlam. So, what prompted this post?
With me not writing and wearing down by the hour, I thought creative thoughts would fall by the wayside. Surprisingly, I was wrong. That superhero series keeps slipping through the cracks since I can’t touch Bedlam, Ichabod, or Legends of Windemere. Not without getting pounced on by the mini-Whirling Dervish that lurks within this abode. How can a kid claim to be tired while running up and down a hallway? Pretty easily and it’s something I wish on every parent who thinks working from home is a cakewalk. (What is a cakewalk?)
Rambling aside, I might have poked a few more holes in my frustration with the superhero series. My experience with Ichabod Brooks makes me think short story collection is the way to go. I’m considering rewriting a bunch of characters too. Bedlam taught me that I can use Earth better than I expected, so I might be taking them out of Windemere. I’m still having trouble deciding on what to do with Savior because Project Phoenix can’t seem to absorb him completely. Having him run with his own series of short story collections might be best. The Protectors can get their own book under Project Phoenix though since the overall story is coming together better than before. This might mean that my alien bounty hunter gets away from Windemere too. So, all of this is going on in my head while I can’t get near a notebook unless I want to incur the tiny one’s hyperactive wrath.
Anyway, does anybody else have an idea like this? One that you can’t get right, but refuse to get rid of. Yet, every time you drop your guard, a new pieces seems to appear. All you need is 5 more lifetimes and maybe it’ll work out.
Legends of Windemere 
Five lifetimes might be the answer. My avenue is the short stories that I publish three times a week. It is like the valve on a boiler. I use the prompt method to get rid of some disjointed thoughts.
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The boiler is bloating this week. Smart move using prompts.
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🙂
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Charles, I like John’s idea…short stories! Never used prompts! Think your brain works overtime, and you have prompts stored up for five lifetimes! Happy writing! 🎭 Christine
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Thanks. I’m leaning toward short story collections like I did with Ichabod. It would certainly help with the 4 connected series.
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Ha. I have no idea what a cakewalk is, but I know what you mean. I agree about the short stories. They seem to be a good way to explore new characters and series ideas.
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Apparently the historical cakewalk was: “a dancing contest among African Americans in which a cake was awarded as a prize.” Didn’t see that one coming at all, but it sounds amazing.
The short stories might also help out with the ensemble cast. These are heroes that are being awoken after forced reincarnation and slumber, so each one has a story to tell in a way.
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Happens to me all the time. I usually make a one line note on a list of short stories and they leave me alone for a while, like they’re happy I made a note. Some persist, and wind up as a short story. Others keep picking until they get a novel. It’s kind of a filtering mechanism for me. You might find this interesting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk
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Should have looked at your comment first before I went wandering around for the definition. 😀 This idea keeps turning up when I can’t get to the others. Very opportunistic since it carries more than one idea. A while back, the superheroes were on par with the vampires and Windemere in terms of depth and importance. Think they’re annoyed at the downgrade.
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If it were me… I’d put them on Earth. I like having some familiarity to sell the fantastic parts of my stories. Then I don’t have to explain the setting and the “powers” at the same time and make it all drag.
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I’ve tended to be the opposite. Earth put on existing rules, especially with physics and geography. Maybe it’s just modern readers who are hunting for things that are unrealistic. Still, superheroes seem to function better on Earth than fantasy. If everyone has incredible magical powers then it starts taking away from characters like Nyx and Trinity.
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That’s a good point too. Nyx and Trinity should be more unique than that.
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There will be some heavy hitters in future series. Yet, those two will probably have the market on sheer destructive power.
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In a hundred years, DC created lots of characters, but none surpassed Superman at what he does.
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True. Although, they certainly have a lot of powerful characters. Shazam comes close to Superman too. Kind of surprised he isn’t stronger since magic effects kryptonians as easily as humans.
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Point was your original girls, and/or goddess can stand as the icons of Windemere.
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They could, but I do plan on having more non-champion series in Windemere. So a few others might rise to their level in some fashion. 😁
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I think that’s cool. I created an elaborate world that I intended to do the same thing with. It all tied together in either the past or future, and even Lisa Burton was in it. They wound up being trunk novels and no agents were interested. I regrouped and never looked back. It started in the rebuilding phase of dystopia, then looped back to Lisa to tell the story of what happened. Then to a survival story like Walking dead minus the zombies. I regrouped and never looked back.
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Sounds really cool. I’ve noticed that most agents and publishers shy away from stuff of that scale. At least from what I remember 10 years ago. Guess they feel most readers won’t accept something that huge.
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It feels almost pigeonholed these days. That was too epic in scale. Solo titles aren’t enough. I believe I would do better with a trilogy, but my mind doesn’t quite work that way.
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Trilogies are a challenge. You need to come up with a beginning, middle, and end, which doesn’t always work smoothly. Especially that middle part that needs closure and an opening for the finale.
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You need four stories. Three individual books and the overarching story. That middle one is frequently the best one, like Empire Strikes Back.
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Good point. War stories seem to be the easiest path. The battles and push for victory make a simple backdrop and overall goal that the more personal ones can work with.
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True. Maybe one day for me. Too many Muse ideas right now.
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She’s working you hard, huh?
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Yeah, and it gets maddening sometimes. I keep wanting to leap ahead and that’s the path to madness.
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Madness can be fun. Except in polite company.
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Thinking I’m just gun shy since I have people calling me on the logic of my own fantasy world. How do you make things detailed enough while giving yourself creative flexibility?
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I try to base as much as I can in reality, then expect them to accept the fantastic parts. Some people are just not suitable to read fantasy. You have to enjoy that fantastic element, or you’re just looking for reasons to pick at.
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Trust the reader. By gar, I remember the days when that rarely failed. At least you didn’t have the Internet to make it publicly known if you fail.
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I’m using the Writer’s Book of Days for prompts, because I’ve been doing a lot of revision lately and need to write some first draft stuff without waiting till November. But I hear you on getting lots of ideas when there’s no time to work on them. Have a notebook ready to jot something down every time the kid goes to the bathroom.
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I’ve been trying on that notebook idea. Had to stop when I got caught up in the notes and realized the kid was in the bathroom for 15 minutes. Can’t put my guard down around the little guy.
Didn’t expect so many people to mention prompts here. Very cool.
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I think we’ve all been there at some point, whether because of children, or because of other commitments. I’m in a similar situation right now with workmen (repairs and renovations are happening in my building, and most of them are actually in my apartment, requiring me to do everything around the workmen). I have the ability to sit down and rest, which is nice, but being blind means I need to not have people making too much noise or having things lying around if I’m going to get things done, since everything either requires me to be able to move about (like certain household chores) or requires me to be able to hear my speach software (like writing and sorting eMails). Workmen means noise and tools and things all over the place, which means several unproductive days for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining… Well, not really. I mean, the work needs to be done, and I want it done. But I also want to work on my writing projects, and doing so is very difficult when I can do little more than sit there twiddling my thumbs on the days workmen are here (which has been a lot of days lately).
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I hear you on the workmen thing. Been there a few times. Best are roofers when you use a second floor bathroom for showers. Work is hard enough, but having soap in your eyes and spotting a blurry shadow on the other side of the ‘privacy’ glass? That rattles you for a bit. Hope the workmen are done soon.
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Thanks… Now you’ve given me something to be thankful for, since at least I can say that hasn’t happened.
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Happy to bring you a silver lining. 😀
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It’s kind of ambitious, but could you write short stories for each hero and have them add up to a longer plot arc?
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I think I had that as a format a few years back. One of the issues I ran into was that some heroes had one story and others had tons. So I’m actually going back to the drawing board with everything to see if I can fix it.
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I had that problem when the kids were younger. I couldn’t get my head to wrap around ideas. Consequently, other circumstances plus these put a hold on my writing until 2009. I had to retrain myself all over. I’m still not where I want to be but further than I was.
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I had to retrain myself after 10 years of the 9-5 grind. I believed the time to write would fall into my lap, but it never happened. So I grabbed minutes to do tiny things that never went anywhere. Feared that I lost my imagination at one point, which was incredibly terrifying.
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I’ve done the same. Health issues got in the way for a while too. They still crop up from time to time, but I do my best to get some writing in.
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Every little step forward helps. 😁
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