Enjoy the Ride

Project Paradise Word Count: 357

Project Skye Word Count: 1617
Project Independence Word Count: 1723
Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12

So, I didn’t get any “mainline” writing done, but I did brainstorm a project and this brainstorming session, while unintentional, was very productive. I’ve chosen which of the two projects that I will be working on to finish out the month. To find out which one, read on:

Driving While Dreaming

So, as some of you may know that I have a fairly long commute from my house to school/class. I usually listen to podcasts and (more rarely) play music. The reception isn’t good enough to listen to anyone radio station the entire time, so these are my only two realistic options. However, today, I found myself not really wanting to listen to a podcast after the first one finished playing and all of the stations had nothing but static and I didn’t want to hook up my bluetooth aftermarket connection for my phone to play music, so I just drove. And what a drive it was.

Project Independent Comes into Focus

So as I was driving, there were long stretches with few cars and lots of quiet and my mind began to wander a bit, I must confess. I kept my eyes on the road and had full road awareness, but I began to wonder what would happen next in the conversation I was in the middle of for Project Independence and boom, my mind was off to the races. It was very much like reliving watching an enjoyable movie as scene after scene played out in my mind. I knew what the main characters were going to do, what they were going to say, who would live and who would (possibly) die. I had the setting, complications, and reversals all planned out. This took place from about the base of Monteagle mountain, through the truck rest area and inspection station, and ended about at Manchester, TN (about a 20-25 minute Speed Limit drive).

Recapturing the Glory

When I finally got to school, I took a moment to jot down (in outline form) the key scenes and their importance from my brainstorming daydream. I’m now super excited to write about it because I want to recapture that feeling and those emotions that i felt while brainstorming the story in my mind. So, if you haven’t guessed already, Project Space Trucker (which should have a title that I really like now) is the one short story project that I’m working on for the rest of May (& a bit into June if I need to. I will push Project Skye (which I’ve made good progress on) back to June. I will work on the Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel on weekends (I owe my artist an email soon).

It was really amazing the way the subconscious took over and helped to fashion out a story that I’m itching to tell. The moral of this story = if you’re stuck, go out for a drive (or a walk, or whatever), but just do something else for a while. You’re subconscious is probably already working on a solution.

Talk to you later!

Sidney