In Other Words

Short thread, long story

Alright, have to keep my entry short for today as I’ve promised (myself and Liana) that I’ll do more work at work. I’m a lazy bastard, so I don’t know how long I’ll keep it up, but I did just do three straight hours of work, which is pretty effective work for me.

I had a new idea yesterday night. About me writing something that I actually might be able to do. This is, again, related to my laziness and my inability to continue going with a project that I’ve lost faith in and no longer enjoy doing. I’ve canceled so many writing projects because I’m not happy with them that its not even funny.

So I’ve been thinking about writing short stories for a while now. The only serious problem with that is that I don’t feel I can say enough of what I want to write about in a short story. The ideas that roam around in my head always need more space then a couple of pages.

Then along comes the book train spotting (part of an omnibus that includes other books by Irvine Welsh) which is basically a collection of short stories tied together by a central theme. Now mind you, there are probably dozens of books out there that do exactly the same as this one (and they’re all called train spotting), but I had just never come across them.

So now I’m thinking about doing that with my stories. They all happen in one place (a sci-fi place that has been drifting through my head under utilised for about six or seven years now) and through the short stories, which will in many ways be similar to our own lives, though in stark ways very different, there will be a central theme and story running in the background.

Huge gaps can be left in the story, to be filled by a reader’s imagination and the story can be told from dozens of different character’s points of view, what ever I feel like telling. Sounds like a brilliant plan to me. Though I might be biased (and desperate to write) so lets hear what you have to say about it.

I’ll tell the general story of Neo Gaia some other time, if there is general interest (which, with two readers, would be quite hard). Well, at least if somebody steals my idea, I’ll know who to kill.

posted by Symbol @ 23.6.04