My mind is always filled to overflowing with stories. However, ideas tend to get crammed into the nooks and crannies of my brain, or stacked in a pile as they wait to be filed away in the correct mental file cabinet.
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. . ."
What a fun post! I got a kick out of the "day care center for stray characters" and the secondary characters who move in without any hint of moving out.
I never thought of my brain as a playground, but you're so right about those story ideas and sets of characters who decide to camp out, all vying for attention. They do, however, occasionally make a clamor at night when I'm trying to sleep. Of course, during waking hours, it’s like a carnival up there. I’m glad I’m not the only one entertaining a full house (or is it a commune)? What do they say about writer’s block? It’s when the voices in your head stop talking.
Love, l-o-v-e, LOVE this post, Donna! :)
Posted by: Mae Clair | November 14, 2012 at 08:52 AM
So were we separated at birth (and whisked to the far side of the globe) or is this how writers typically feel? LOL
Posted by: Heather Boyd | November 14, 2012 at 04:15 PM
Mae, I'm glad you enjoyed my post! And I think you're right about it being a commune -- people wandering around, doing what they do, and it all kind of works out somehow. Although some days I think it would be great to have some kind of traffic controller there. LOL
Posted by: Donna Cummings | November 14, 2012 at 07:41 PM
Heather -- LOL -- you never know! Maybe we were separated at birth. Or maybe we share this playground brain. :)
Posted by: Donna Cummings | November 14, 2012 at 07:43 PM
I don't think that I could work with my head buzzing like yours Donna!
I like to focus down on specifics and eliminate all the background clutter as I try to develop models which simplify complex processes. No doubt that it works for you though.
Reminds me a bit of the physical vacuum. The non-scientist often thinks of the vacuum as nothingness and extremely boring. In fact it's buzzing with virtual particles continuously coming into existence and fading away.
If I tried to model your process, I might make your mind a vacuum with virtual characters popping in and out like the physical vacuum fluctuations. The most interesting would then persist and start to play with you, the lucky ones materialising in the next story.
Must be fun being a virtual character vying for an author's attention.
I'm starting to feel envious! LOL
Posted by: Quantum | November 17, 2012 at 03:57 AM
Q, I love the physical vacuum description -- it sounds exactly like what's going on in my head. LOL It could explain why I don't like to have "background noise" on, such as a TV or music, since my brain provides enough of its own!
When I'm editing, I have to send all the other characters on an extended vacation, so I can focus intently on just the one story. I usually get more tired from that, so maybe I need all the energy that comes from all the characters jumping around. LOL
Posted by: Donna Cummings | November 17, 2012 at 08:38 AM