Saturday, May 26, 2007

I want my brain back !

Six months ago I was still swearing that I didn't have the imagination to write fiction. Then I re-watched New Doctor Who Season 2 and my brain started teeming with ideas, so now I find myself in the midst of a series of novellas featuring the Tenth Doctor and an original companion. You'd think that would be enough for one person - after all, I've written 5 of these novellas since mid-January - over 110,000 words for goodness sake ! But no, it's not enough apparently.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I read Linda Buckley-Archer's The Tar Man last weekend and it seems to have sparked a whole chain of ideas for a time-travel tale of my own (with nary a Doctor in sight). I went from the mere glimmerings of an idea at the beginning of the week to a 250 word (so far!) synopsis by last night. Which is all well and good, but I am in the midst of writing my sixth Doctor Who story and I've got plans to write several more yet. Plus to do this tale well, I'd have to do a whole lot of research for it - not that I mind doing research (love it, in fact) - but it's finding the time for it and to sleep and work as well !

How is that not only did none of my writer acquaintances warn me that writing fiction is as addictive as hard drugs (well so I assume - I've never actually taken hard drugs), but none of them warned me, either, that writing fiction would result in my brain teeming with ever more ideas - that it's like dropping a large rock into a still pool, the ripples spread out ever wider and end up engulfing everything in their path ?

Of course, this does mean that all those people who've made comments to me about wanting to see me write some "original fiction" (a phrase I find odd, frankly - my Doctor Who stories are original, I'm not stealing them after all - they just happen to feature a single character I didn't create !), will now be happy/pleased, I guess (hope!). Just don't hold your breath waiting for it, because you'll surely expire ! Even if I did set aside the Doctor Who series at the end of the story-in-progress, I can't see this non-Who tale surfacing any time soon !

As yet there's no knowing whether this tale would be a full length novel as opposed to the novella-length stories I've been writing. So far I seem to have naturally fallen into writing tales of around 22 - 23,000 words, but looking at the synopsis, I can see that this might well work out longer than that - I guess I'll have to wait and see, just like everyone else.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, yay! Original time travel fiction! I definitely want to read it if you ever finish it!

Michele said...

Thanks Sheila, if I ever start it, I'll let you know !

Mai said...

Hooray for "original" fiction! I for one look forward to reading this when you finish it. Or maybe your writer friends can help you find the contacts to make it available to an even WIDER audience. It would not surprise me, based on what I've read of your Doctor Who stories.

But yes, writing is addicting, and the research done for writing never really feels like 'work'. It is amazing.

Michele said...

We'll have to see - before anyone can read it, I have to write it - and I've got several more Who stories to get out of my system first. Alas, I don't have the time (nor the inclination) to try writing two lots of fiction at once !