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How do you make it stop???

Background: I don’t read much these days. Mostly non-fiction for research. Lots of Wikipedia and TVTropes for stuff.

We call it “filling the bucket.” Not everything turns into a story. Sometimes, I’m just contemplating the shape of story. Or something.

Recently, I’ve been comparing modern streaming (6-12 episode arcs as a single long movie instead of the old television days) to Serials in the wayback. Republic and a few others did this, where they’d play a new “episode” weekly at the cinema. Usually 15 (sometimes shorter) in an arc, somewhere betweeen 15-30 minutes long. Early Superman and Batman are there, along with westerns, private detective, and others.

I got to wandering down a rabbit hole. Bad. Ended up digging up the original version of “The Sentinel” by Clarke, then the official version of 2001 (which has almost nothing in common except concept). Then compared some of the horror elements to a few other things that weren’t obvious on the surface.

Then went to start taking notes about the shape of a story. Damned thing wanted to turn into a novel series on me, when all I wanted was to generate a short story for my Patreon readers. Might not be able to keep it short. Boundary Shock Quarterly runs a hard cap of 20,000 words, mostly because SF often requires that to get Setting right.

Trying to decide how much I let it germinate, and how much I just start with a blank piece of paper and run like hell until I get it out of my system. Got characters. Setting. Problem. Issues. Depth.

Grumble.

The second Maddox story crossed 20k last week. Target is around 45k, given the length of #1. Probably working on it this morning, with that second notes document open in the background where I pause and add ideas occasionally.

Young writers just starting out often ask “Where do you get your ideas?” (Hint: Schenectady, New York).

Old writers ask “How do I make it stop?” That’s kinda where I am this drizzly Monday morning.

Fall might be upon us. Gotta check the fruit today. Burned scrap wood all weekend to kill termites and carpenter ants. And make space. Not burning today. Harvesting, maybe. Dunno. Gotta write first.

Not a lot past that. Keeping busy. Hurt from all the physicality of the weekend. Getting back in better shape after that summer. Thinking thinky thoughts.

What’s your Monday looking like?

shade and sweet water

b

West of the Mountains, WA

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