Thursday, July 19, 2012

Percolator In Action

From my backyard: A cecropia moth visited our trampoline.
While I haven't had a change to write a darn thing lately, the time away from doing so has allowed my subconscious percolator to do its thing. Three things I've accomplished this week without physically accomplishing anything (writing related):

1. At long last, I've happened upon a title for the sequel to Trust. Now called: Chains of Gray. That only took several years...

2. I've discovered that I seem fond of two themes throughout several of my stories--which are otherwise unrelated. One is the color gray (or grey, as I prefer to see it) having some significance in various ways. The other is genetics - either the manipulation of, breaking down of or restrictions based upon them. It started with Trust, then went in another direction in A Broken Race and splintered into Devolution. Now its continuing on in the as yet untitled (Egads, yet another project to title. Let's hope that doesn't take years, shall we?) prequel to A Broken Race. Neither thing was intentional in its multiple manifestations. Giving the percolator time to wander through my stories while my body was busy allowed it to make these connections and point them out to me. At which point I profoundly said, "Huh. Weird."

3. I've had time to work on troubleshooting the aforementioned Devolution. That short story has been languishing in my 'rework' folder for well over a year. I've got the conflict down its just finding the right *bang* for the resolution that totally escapes me as of yet. It's not a twist kind of story and that might be what's tripping me up. At least this gives the percolator something to chew on while the rest of me is off in worker drone mode.

Have you noticed any unintentional repeating of things in your stories?

4 comments:

  1. Most definitely! Computer interfaces (usually, but not always, some advanced virtual reality), architecture, and food. Food always makes an appearance.

    I think we unconsciously gravitate to things that interest or hold meaning for us, and which we feel comfortable writing about.

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    1. It's funny that while I do love food, my characters tend to focus more on drinking. This might say something...like I'm thirsty a lot while writing. Yes, I'm sure that's what it means.

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  2. Every time I see a moth, I think of Silence of the Lambs. Poor moths, forever linked to a serial killer.

    As far as repetition, I'm still on my first, so I don't have to worry about it. But I know it's gonna be a constant struggle.

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    1. This moth would give a serial killer pause. Well, it wouldn't have made for such a nice cover image anyway. It was the size of my hand.

      I didn't notice my repetition much until I poured out quite a few shorts along with the novels. That's when the points started to stand out.

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