The Playground of My Mind

My brain is filled to overflowing right now.

I've mentioned before how my mental "filing system" (definite "air quotes" in use here) is not as organized as it could be. If it were, it would be so much easier to locate all the stuff that has been crammed into the nooks and crannies of already overcrowded brain cells.

To make things even more challenging, I have characters that roam around up there. Some of them tiptoe through the mayhem and try not to gape. But others are a lot more nosy. They have to poke a stick at something that catches their interest, which makes something else topple over, which crashes into yet another pile of ideas. . .

It's a good thing. I think. I'm pretty sure. I mean, that's how crazy notions manage to get their start. Although I do wonder what it would be like if I had a brain that was neat and tidy, with row after row of labeled, organized ideas, and scenes, and heck, whole manuscripts in their proper place.

Actually it might frighten me to see it like that. It wouldn't feel like me. It would definitely seem like I'd been transplanted into someone else's brain. (You can see another story idea forming, can't you?)

I envy non-writers, since I imagine their brains are wide open and spacious, with plenty of room for new stuff to be imported. The best I can do to achieve that status is to keep pouring my stories out, in an attempt to make room for new ones.

Unfortunately, with new stories comes new secondary characters, and they move in with no plan to move back out. And somehow they have friends I didn't know about when I said, "Sure, stay for a few days. There's plenty of room."

Next thing you know I'm running a day care center for stray characters. And all their baggage, and everything they need to go through to stretch and grow and move on to their HEA.

It's a giant playground up there, filled with a multitude of fascinating heroes and heroines. I don't want to be a cranky hall monitor, so they've learned to keep the noise down while I'm sleeping. But as soon as I'm awake, it's fair game. Unless they have other plans of course, which they frequently do, and I'm the last to know about it.

Still, I wouldn't have it any other way. I've grown accustomed to wandering through my brain, shushing one batch of characters, and drawing out another group that is unnecessarily quiet. When I write their stories, it ends up being a veritable scrapbook of where they've been, and where their hopes and dreams led them.

Too soon, before I'm quite ready, they're gone, and it's difficult to get used to the silence they've left behind.

All of a sudden I'm thinking, "You know, if I move that idea over there, and stack this with these others, there would be plenty of room for that new group of characters. . ."

Comments

[Quantum]

Donna, this gives a whole new meaning to having a rich inner life!

I sometimes think that all my years of study and research in science has stuffed my head with knowledge in a very logical structured way, leaving little room for the chaotic character play that you describe. Probably I'm trained to use the left brain by default while the right side might well be filled with cobwebs and sleeping ghosts of characters.

New year resolution: stir up the right brain with a party and get things moving! LOL

[Donna Cummings]

Q, it really is a rich inner life! I told a friend recently it's like having 14 TVs on in my head at once, which is one reason I don't like having TVs on in the background. LOL

I think you have a rich right brain, based on your grandkids' love of your stories. :) But I think you're right about using one side for certain work-related activities. That can be a benefit, though, because the OTHER side of the brain plays and then it's ready when you sit down to create. :) The ultimate in multi-tasking!

We'll just have to make sure we're doing plenty of partying this year. :)

[Melissa]

I think my brain is also a playground for my characters, which is probably why I'm so tempted by sequels. Or at least a loose network of sequels. My groups insist on playing some form of that six degrees of Kevin Bacon game. Yep, everyone has a connection to someone else some how or another! I'm not sure this is a good thing...but I've given up trying to put up walls they will peek over anyway! LOL

Sometimes I envy non-writers, but other times I feel sort of sorry for them. I felt a bit like this on New Year's Eve when I was out with a group of single ladies (or about to be single by the looks of it!...another story there!). I thought if they just had an inner playground they might be a little more content or stay out of trouble! LOL

[Donna Cummings]

Melissa, I had you in mind when I was thinking of all those secondary characters taking up residence. LOL I know how they take over your writing world. But I figure the characters have such strong bonds with each other, and that's a good thing. Other people (i.e., readers) will feel the same way too. :)

That's too funny about the about-to-be-single ladies needing an inner playground. Of course, then we as writers wouldn't have as much fun observing them. LOL

[Kari Marie]

Some of the best ideas come from those little brain mashups. I love how crowded my head is...most of the time. Keeps things interesting when one character saunters over to another to say howdy.

I loved Stephen King's description of the human mind as a file room (much like you described) in Dreamcatcher. I didn't love the book, but the descriptions of the main character locking himself behind a door when his body is taken over by an alien has stuck with me. The files in the room contained valuable information from his childhood that could help him. Fascinating stuff!

[Donna Cummings]

LOL, Kari Marie -- at how the characters saunter over to say howdy to each other. Since I write contemporary and historical, it could cause some interesting craziness!

I don't read much Stephen King anymore, since his stories scare the crap out of me. LOL But I like how the file room ended up being useful to the character. There IS a reason for all that trivia I'm storing!