Fortunately for me, and the people around me, I am very comfortable inside my head. I may not always like the body that was given me to carry my brain around, but the landscape of my brain is well-mapped and familiar.
This is good, because I am a bitch to deal with for brainstorming.
On my own, I can usually manage. I tell myself stories before I go to sleep - I've found I worry a lot less if I'm making up stories than if I'm fussing about bills and my daughter's burst eardrum or the fact that I've had an ingrown toenail for A YEAR now, or that we really need to paint the bathroom downstairs... or or or. You know, I'm as prolific a writer as I am because it keeps me from going insane. Yes, yes it does.
I've got my methods and my madness. I often write characters and descriptions in notebooks (I love notebooks!) and then problems for them to solve, and I sort of flow-chart the story. Or at least I used to; I've managed to streamline the process a bit. (Have I mentioned how very very much I love Scrivener? If I haven't, let me do so now. Best. Software. Ever! I got it a few years ago, at a discount, for participating and completing a NaNoWriMo project... even without the discount, it's well worth the money it costs for a licensed copy. And you can try it out for free to see if it works for you. Okay, enough commercial. No, they're not compensating me for my endorsement.)
But sometimes I get stuck and I need someone to bounce ideas off of.
Advice: If I ever ask you to be a sounding board for me - run, don't walk - toward the nearest exit. Preferably screaming at the top of your lungs. Crazy writer! Crazy writer!
Seriously. You don't want to do it.
My idea of brainstorming is to reject everything you come up with. EVERY. THING. And I'll go through a ten minute rant for each idea, explaining just how wrong it is.
I've been told this is hideously annoying.
Despite that, it's really HELPFUL to me, and if you actually have a bag full of patience, or earplugs, that'd be awesome. Because all that yeah, but, no, I don't think so, this is why that wouldn't work, actually does help me. It shakes everything around in my brain and like one of those pinball games at the fair, all my marbles drop down and get sorted out at the bottom.
It does help.
You are helpful.
Even if I am raining all over your brainstorm.
So... who wants to be a sounding board for me? I'm stuck.
*laugh* You know I'm always happy to be your dartboard, dearheart. Send me an email and tell me where you're stuck.
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