When in doubt...

My mother always told me, when in doubt, write about something you know. The problem with that is, I know too little about too much. There are a few things, however, that I know a lot about. So, that's what I am going to talk about. Writing.

If you've never tried to write anything longer than a short story, then you don't have a clue what a writer goes through trying to come up with a tale. The text book at school told me a story was a plot line that consisted of a beginning, a climax, and a resolution. If it were that simple, everyone would be a writer.

What a story really is, is a complex web of characters, events, places, themes, and ideas somehow put together in a way that mimics real life.

Why do I say this? Because I am in the middle of writing a story and it refuses to turn out how I want.

You see, a good story will take on a life of its own. A writer waits impatiently for the paragraph in which the story itself takes over and begins telling itself to you. That's when it is almost impossible to have the characters act out of character and the plot just comes naturally. Sometimes a story starts that way then dies, sometimes it starts a bit forced and ends that way, and sometimes... everything is perfect, but just one small detail is wrong and it throws off everything else.

That's where I am right now. Everything is perfect but I'm missing something and the whole story is suffering because of it.

It is infuriating to no end!!! Writing a story when it's like that is like trying to kayak against current. You might get somewhere, but it is hardly worth the effort.

So, I am at a fork in the road, so to speak. Do I keep going with my great story idea that wont' take off, or do I abandon it?

I'll keep going... my idea was too good.