Creative Writing: “Put Your Feet Up”
Here's a creative writing piece I wrote over at TypeTrigger last week. I'm not sure how to classify it, exactly. It's somewhere in between fiction and nonfiction. I just took the prompt, which was "put your feet up", let my mind wander, and waited to see what would come out.
Enjoy!
Put Your Feet Up
Whenever I need to have a good think I lie down backwards on my bed, with my feet propped up against the wall, let the blood pour down into my brain, close my eyes, and just wander around for a while inside my head.
It's tough slogging, I find, navigating my neuron clusters with all that blood flowing, but it's far more interesting than going in when it's dry, when my brain's like a desert, with just a couple of lonely cactus-like ideas growing here and there. When my feet are up and the rivers are flowing the vegetation gets much more lively.
The first few exploring sessions I embarked on while the blood was in my head, I went in barefoot and was forced to stick to the shoreline, wondering what those big ideas were that I could see off in the distance. Lately, though, I've been bringing a good pair of boots along, so I'm able to go inland, where a lot of the grey matter is. Ideas grow like weeds in the grey matter, if they're being watered well.
One time I tried building a raft and floating down one of my arterial channels. I thought it might bring me somewhere important, where I was storing a really great, unique idea, but I must've gotten caught in a current of some sort, because I eventually found myself floating around near the tip of my tongue. It took me hours to find my way back out.
One day I'm going to find that big idea, and then I'll cultivate it, fertilizing and pruning and taking cuttings so I can plant more big ideas just like it in my back garden.
Until then, I'll lie here with my feet up, and off I'll go, exploring.
Writing Update – September 16, 2011
I mentioned in my post yesterday that I had a story published by OneFortyFiction.
Beyond that, this week has been moderately productive on the writing front. I wrote a flash fiction story called "Reclaiming the Night" and submitted it to a couple of places. It was originally a TypeTrigger story, but I fleshed it out and edited it a bit.
I also improved on a Six-Minute Story piece called "What We Left Behind" and submitted it to handful of markets.
I'm working through a difficult portion of my novel, but I've done 4,500 words in that so far this week, and I'd like to do a bit more tomorrow. I know the direction the story has to go from here, but I'm struggling a bit with a couple of new characters, so I have to get it all straight in my head.
Another thing I've been working on is a bit of a world-building collaborative project. I wrote the second story from this new world and have been doing some thinking about where to go from there. Not sure how soon I'll be able to talk about that more, but it's a lot of fun so far, and we'll see where it ends up.
No responses from markets to report this week. I have 9 stories submitted to 19 different markets that are pending responses.
The Fuzzy Bear and the Buzzy Bee
I wrote Larissa a story over Facebook chat. Naturally, I wanted to share it with the rest of the world. It is such a happy little tale!
The Fuzzy Bear and the Buzzy Bee
Once upon a time a fuzzy bear was balancing on a tight rope, and a buzzy bee was watching him.
The buzzy bee said, "That is so silly, you silly bear! What good is it to balance when you can fly?"
"But I can't fly," said the fuzzy bear. "I don't have wings, like you. I only have fuzzy hair, so balancing on this tight rope is the best I can do."
"Well I feel very sorry for you," said the buzzy bee, and he flew in a triple upside-down loop-around pattern to show that he meant it.
The fuzzy bear was so impressed with how good the buzzy bee was at flying that he clapped his hands in delight, but the movement made him lose his balance and he tumbled to the ground, PLOMP!
"Oh no!" said the buzzy bee. "That was all my fault. Now I am even more extra sorry!"
"It's okay," said the fuzzy bear. "I am so fuzzy and so roly-poly that I hardly felt it all."
"That must be nice," said the buzzy bee. "When I fall down it always hurts a lot! That's why I fly all the time. I'm scared of the ground!"
"You must get very tired if you have to fly so much and never touch the ground."
"Yes, I do, but I would rather be tired from flying than be sore from landing on the hard ground and hurting myself."
"I know!" said the fuzzy bear. "If you need a rest, why don't you land on top of my fuzzy head? I am very soft, and it won't hurt you at all."
"Okay!" agreed the buzzy bee. It carefully, gently, slowly buzzed down to where the fuzzy bear was sitting and landed on the bear's head. "Aaaahh... It is so nice to have a rest," it said.
The fuzzy bear was so soft that the buzzy bee fell right to sleep. Not wanting to disturb the bee, the fuzzy bear decided to have a nap, too. After all, he could practice on his tight rope any time he wanted, but it wasn't every day that he got a chance to make a new friend.
Writing a Novel!?
You know how sometimes a story grabs hold of your mind and holds your concentration at ransom until you finally give in and start to write it down? No? Well maybe that's just me. And it's happening right now.
I think I've started writing a novel. Oh dear!
I had an idea for a story a long time ago, and I wrote it down in a note on my iPhone, and it fermented a bit, and finally sprouted onto an actual Word document a couple of weeks ago. (I know that was a mixed metaphor. Let's just go with it; I like the imagery.) What I originally imagined as a short story, though, has grown legs and walked all over my imagination--hey cool, another metaphor!--and as of today I have 8,000 words written and an outline containing 23 major plot events, each of which will take up at least one chapter. If my forecast is correct, getting all the way through my outline should take at least 50,000 words. Oh dear.
What I am saying is that I've clearly started writing a novel. Sounds kind of crazy, but I think now is a good time for it. I need something to work towards while I'm job-hunting and making preparations to finalize and defend my Master's thesis.
It remains to be seen how much time I'll be able to dedicate to this in the long run, but I'm planning on giving it a shot, and we'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'll also be doing the aforementioned job-hunting and thesis-finalizing, along with maintaining FiftyWordStories.com and writing the occasional flash fiction or short story, so I have a pretty full plate, both creatively and otherwise.
Wish me luck!
Feel-Good Progress Update
In between working on my thesis research, writing daily updates for FiftyWordStories.com, and performing my cooking duties (like a good husband), I've been planning for and making progress towards releasing my second collection of flash fiction, which I'm calling Feel-Good.
My plan, at the beginning, was to release one of these every month or so, and I'm hoping I won't be too far off that target, when all is said and done. As it stands right now, I have everything written for Feel-Good except the superhero story which I received prompts for from several lucky readers of Living and Dying. I'm hoping to get that story written sometime this weekend or next week. I have the concept mostly sorted out already.
Once that story has been put together, I just have to do a couple of editing passes and the formatting and cover art.
Along with the aforementioned superhero story, Feel-Good will contain several pieces of flash fiction in the 250- to 500-word range; a piece of 555 fiction (three stories written to the same title, one 500 words long, one 50 words, and one 5 words); a few lighthearted poems; and a short story about a tugboat. Everyone loves tugboats, right?
I've revised the estimated release date to July 18. Feel-Good will be available as a pay-what-you-want download, and also on the Kindle Store for $0.99. Information about the special offers and preorder bonuses, as well as early access for people on the Early Access List, will be available closer to the actual release.
Special People
Special People is serialized superhero fiction with a fistful of twists.
Special people have special problems.
BECOMING
The second quarter of the Year of Stories has arrived in print! BECOMING contains over 200 pages of great short stories for only $11.99. Order yours now.
DISCOVERY
Prefer the feel of paper to the look of a screen? DISCOVERY is the first quarterly Year of Stories print book. You get nearly 200 pages of exciting fiction for only $11.99! Grab your copy now.
Galloway’s Hunt
Galloway's Hunt is a novelette set in the world of Galloway's Voyage, my work-in-progress novel based on the same title character. Buy it now for only 99¢!
Losing Freight
Losing Freight is a serialized sci-fi novel where you get to vote on what happens next at the end of every page.