Nice essay ! Thanks for sharing your process journey. Sounds like you're seeing some advantages to working within a set of boundaries. Maybe those boundaries have to be reset for a very different story as you're hinting at. Without boundaries we're faced with the challenge of the limitlessly open field - and that can be daunting.
Constraints - Time - Research - Process
Constraints. The story I'm working on has some constraints laid down by the original story call. I'll seek to work within the majority of the concepts described by the caller - but I'm also giving myself permission to bend or break with their conventions if it enables my story to develop.
Time. I'm grateful that this story call has months of lead time. This is helpful because like you, I've felt compelled to research the far future environment as I try to lay down some constraints on my worldbuilding. What might it be like under a red sun ? How has the neighborhood changed ? How have people changed ? What are folks intriguing about these days ?
Research. You have my admiration for your enthusiastic research. Research helps inspire my worldbuilding. Environments, settings, and possible scenes seem to come out of that. Managing the amount of information and how to make it easily accessible has been a challenge so knowing about good note taking options has been helpful.
Process. Personally, I've thought about researching and contemplating as building a layer of humus. To grow, a forest needs a nourishing base to take root in. It seems to me that we have to build a similar layer inside ourselves, so stories can germinate. It seems that ideas are beginning to sprout in the soil you've prepared. Yay !
There's a lot I'd like to understand better, story structures being one of them. However, I don't want to let my lack of comprehension stop me from attempting story telling. This inchoate process is still a process - just a messy one. In this moment I can compare it to a simple celled organism adding parts to itself to survive and grow.
"Concept ! Place ! Add character..... And an issue. Go !"
You are welcome! Boundaries do seem to help creativity flourish, in my experience anyway! I'm so glad that your process is supporting your story telling--however messy!!
Nice essay ! Thanks for sharing your process journey. Sounds like you're seeing some advantages to working within a set of boundaries. Maybe those boundaries have to be reset for a very different story as you're hinting at. Without boundaries we're faced with the challenge of the limitlessly open field - and that can be daunting.
Constraints - Time - Research - Process
Constraints. The story I'm working on has some constraints laid down by the original story call. I'll seek to work within the majority of the concepts described by the caller - but I'm also giving myself permission to bend or break with their conventions if it enables my story to develop.
Time. I'm grateful that this story call has months of lead time. This is helpful because like you, I've felt compelled to research the far future environment as I try to lay down some constraints on my worldbuilding. What might it be like under a red sun ? How has the neighborhood changed ? How have people changed ? What are folks intriguing about these days ?
Research. You have my admiration for your enthusiastic research. Research helps inspire my worldbuilding. Environments, settings, and possible scenes seem to come out of that. Managing the amount of information and how to make it easily accessible has been a challenge so knowing about good note taking options has been helpful.
Process. Personally, I've thought about researching and contemplating as building a layer of humus. To grow, a forest needs a nourishing base to take root in. It seems to me that we have to build a similar layer inside ourselves, so stories can germinate. It seems that ideas are beginning to sprout in the soil you've prepared. Yay !
There's a lot I'd like to understand better, story structures being one of them. However, I don't want to let my lack of comprehension stop me from attempting story telling. This inchoate process is still a process - just a messy one. In this moment I can compare it to a simple celled organism adding parts to itself to survive and grow.
"Concept ! Place ! Add character..... And an issue. Go !"
You are welcome! Boundaries do seem to help creativity flourish, in my experience anyway! I'm so glad that your process is supporting your story telling--however messy!!