Loons

[mmerriam]

The loon story is moving. It is moving slowly, oh so slowly, but still, forward movement and all that.

This is turning into one of the oddest experiences for me as a writer as well. Typically when I write a short story, I know what is going on before I start. I have a clear idea about who and what and where and why and what they all have to lose and how it came to this. I start at the beginning, write until I reach the end, and I stop.

This story is coming to me in scenes; some as long as three pages, others little more than a bare paragraph, and none of them connected yet. But I find myself not at all worried about this. Befuddled and struggling to learn how to coax the tale out, but not worried. If this is the way the story wants to reveal itself, so be it. I'm game to learn something new about story construction.

I'm starting to get a solid sense of the size and scope of the tale as well. I'm thinking long novelette or short novella, just from the characters, the empty spaces that seem to be between the scenes I have so far, and what I still haven't written down but am holding in my head.

The only thing that is worrying me is it seems each scene is in a different style. Sometimes they are very straightforward (which is my typical storytelling style) sometimes I seem to be channeling my old poet-self and placing lush words laced with symbolism in long, flowing sentences. Some scenes are very remote, while others are up-close and intense. It's all very odd.

I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Comments

[pameladean]

Clearly the loons are talking to you.

I really love your posts about the writing process.

P.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I might be using the LJ more to talk about process and such in the future, mostly because I'm trying to figure out some things about what I'm doing as a writer.

[wordswoman.livejournal.com]

Now you have me *very* curious to read this, when it's done...

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

It may be awhile. I'm just saying, because it's coming oh so slowly.

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it's fun to sail without a compass for a while :)

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

As long as I don't crash into a reef.

[dmbaird.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the world of patchwork story-writing! Fun, ain't it?

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Fun. Yeah, that's the word...

[careswen.livejournal.com]

Is it possible that this is meant to be a performance story? I could see that working well for the voice changes. And then the length wouldn't matter as much for marketability.