Day 2: Sifting through the garbage

December 28, 2009

The problem with writing for me has never been the actual "Writing" part, it has always been the "Sticking with one idea" part. I suppose I am lucky on that front, as I have never been lacking in the ideas department. I literally have notebooks full of ideas, but that is essentially all they are. It is the same thing in all my notebooks. There are many lists of story ideas, usually followed by a four to five page write up of the basic gist of the story. Never much character development, never much more than the first half of the story. It's not that I am incapable of finishing an entire story(though it often feels that way), it's that whenever I begin to really get into a story, another one pops into my head and I start writing that one.

I believe in laymen's terms this means I am scatterbrained. Which is not exactly the greatest attribute to be associated to a writer. In volume, I could probably produce an entire screenplays worth of ideas and dialogue, it would just be scattered across eleven different stories. Which is why I am going to put all of my favorite story ideas together and do a kind of "Presentation" to a couple of friends/business associates at the beginning of the new year. I've never been too keen on working in tandem with someone, but I think that the only way I am going to be able to settle on one idea(or at least only a couple of ideas), is to receive a bit of guidance in this area.

I am expecting this gathering process to take a good week, as I would like to make it a bit more organized than it is at this moment. I will admit that I am a bit nervous with the proposition of showing other people my ideas, but the overwhelming excitement that I am feeling because of it is a far greater high then the low of them disliking any of my stories. 364 days until I have to be done with whatever it is I am going to create, it sure doesn't seem like much time at all.