Friday, November 4, 2022

Story Pathways

 If you write, which I'm guessing you do, sometimes your thoughts wander from where you planned.  In this case, it's story ideas.  As I was writing my High King's Sword, (I'm hoping my cover artist can stop being a pre-vet student for a few minutes and whip me a couple covers out so I can publish the last 3 soon!), I would get ideas for side stories or full blown series.  My biggest side trek was taking a story I'd made about Noshi into a better story and a series, but I wanted to finish my High King's Sword first.  So here is an idea to not lose that spark.

1) Notebooks.  Okay, spirals, google docs, Word, what ever works for you, but write down your thoughts before they wonder away.  There has been times I will be traveling to my mother and mother-in-law's and think of great ideas, but I often forget them by the time I get there.  If I don't forget, I have a spiral to jot down my idea to add to my growing idea list.

2) Feel free to take a break from your main story.  Sometimes you get stuck and need a change of venue. There were a few times I just couldn't figure out where to go with the Sword or I couldn't edit anymore and I needed to do something new.  A little writing isn't bad on a different project.  It might even get your creative juices flowing again.

3) Feel free to scrap the idea.  I know I've jotted down a lot of ideas that will never go anywhere, but getting them out or down helps clear your mind to get on to the projects you really want to do.

4) This works for roleplaying campaigns, as well. Say you have a main campaign going on, but you think of a side adventure or even a new campaign idea.  Write them down.  Even a good, long term campaign might need a break now and again. And you might be able to work the ideas into your main campaign.

Happy Writing.

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