This summer, for the first time in years, I had a schedule. This put me on a long, dark (more like pitch black), lonely road to my home several nights a week.
Being a writer, I should be able to describe to you what made the hair on the back of my neck stand up as I drove.
The road goes between one small town in the Ozarks to an even smaller farm community with only one viable business, a convenience store.
About a mile down this road you lose the light from the first town and the light from the quick stop ahead of you is not yet bright enough to be visible. All you have to guide you is your headlights.
There is no shoulder on the road. On one side, the back of fence of several farms flashes in the headlights. The other side is a hill goes up and disappears into the shadows, just past that is the railroad track.
In the last ten years, I have driven this road a thousand times, but this summer it triggered a recurring nightmare.
In my nightmare, I as drive down this road I spot something. I slow down to take a closer look. I spy a large wooden crate made of sassafras sticks tied together with yellow baling twin.
I turn the car toward the box so the light shines on it and slowly get out. The box is about 20 yards away. Should I go see if anything is in the box or should I stay close in case it is dangerous?
Something moves and I jump, trip over a rock and land on both hands and knees. From that position, I can see there is a small human chained to the crate.
At that point, I wake up.
I had this dream every night. It got so I hated to close my eyes.
One night when I woke up from my scary dream, I jumped up and went to my office where I wrote it down. That was at 2 am. At 6 am I was still writing and I was on chapter 6. That is how the Twisted Mind of Cletus Compton became a novel.
The funny thing is, after that night I never had the nightmare again.
Hum... leave me a comment and tell me what you think. Where did the dream come from? Why did it go away so abruptly?
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Let"s Create
Since I was a small child, I was told we are put on this world to create, or to love one another , or to take care of things and people who cannot take care of themselves.
It depends on what you believe as to which of these things is the most important. In a perfect world, it would all be relevant.
Today I want to talk about creating. Everyday someone says to me, "I could never write a book," how do you do it? Then they look at me in disbelief when I tell them, "I'm not quite sure."
It's true. Most of my ideas come from a snippet of a recurring dream, a piece of a conversation, or a thought I can't get out of my head. Usually, for sanity's sake, I write it down.
The funny thing is, once I write it down, it goes away. I don't have the dream anymore. I can think about other things and I can't always remember the way the conversation, I obsessed about only moments before, actually went.
Now here is the odd part, (if that isn't odd enough). I have absolutely no idea who will be in the book, what the plot is or how it will end. I sit down at my computer with a cup of coffee (decaf, I am hyper enough) and begin to type. To get started, I read the last paragraph I wrote the day before. Then my mind is off and running. People pop into my imagination and I see them with great detail, even down to the mole on their cheek.
If I stick to it, no one gets sick, the dogs don't have to go outside, the room isn't too hot or cold or a dozen other things to interrupt my train of thought, I spew out a story. Sometimes stories take weeks, others take months and one even took a year.
Enter, my friends and family and even my families friends. I need readers. At this point, I am convinced the reader thinks I am illiterate. My work needs comma's, periods, quotation marks, different paragraph breaks and on and on. I only want to know about the content. Is this a story line you could get into.
I mostly get, "Wow,you're weird!" "Whose brain comes up with this stuff.?"
The Springfield area has several writers groups, Sleuth's, Ink Mystery Writers, Ozark Romance Authors,and The Writer's Guild to name a few. Believe me, these people are as weird as I am. Maybe they are a little more mainstream weird ( yes, it is possible).
Wanda Fittro wrote about an abusive relationship and I swear, you would think you were in the room.
Tierney James writes (among other things) a series about a housewife turned spy. It is so believable, you wonder what the lady next door did last night. Lisa Medley writes of Space Cowboys, Alien love, and Reapers, (the grim kind). Beth Carter writes romance novels that are raising in the ranks.
VJ Shultz will surprise you every time with her short stories, password journals and coloring books. Shirley McCann will scare the beegeebees out of you. Before you know it you are sitting with your back to the wall so no one can walk up behind you. (I wanted to say McCann can, but thought better of it.)
If you paint, draw, care for the sick or elderly, cook, garden, or a thousand other things , you are a creator.
Stop by and tell me about your passion.
http://susankeeneauthor.com https://www.facebook.com/susanskeene1/
It depends on what you believe as to which of these things is the most important. In a perfect world, it would all be relevant.
Today I want to talk about creating. Everyday someone says to me, "I could never write a book," how do you do it? Then they look at me in disbelief when I tell them, "I'm not quite sure."It's true. Most of my ideas come from a snippet of a recurring dream, a piece of a conversation, or a thought I can't get out of my head. Usually, for sanity's sake, I write it down.
The funny thing is, once I write it down, it goes away. I don't have the dream anymore. I can think about other things and I can't always remember the way the conversation, I obsessed about only moments before, actually went.
Now here is the odd part, (if that isn't odd enough). I have absolutely no idea who will be in the book, what the plot is or how it will end. I sit down at my computer with a cup of coffee (decaf, I am hyper enough) and begin to type. To get started, I read the last paragraph I wrote the day before. Then my mind is off and running. People pop into my imagination and I see them with great detail, even down to the mole on their cheek.
If I stick to it, no one gets sick, the dogs don't have to go outside, the room isn't too hot or cold or a dozen other things to interrupt my train of thought, I spew out a story. Sometimes stories take weeks, others take months and one even took a year.
Enter, my friends and family and even my families friends. I need readers. At this point, I am convinced the reader thinks I am illiterate. My work needs comma's, periods, quotation marks, different paragraph breaks and on and on. I only want to know about the content. Is this a story line you could get into.
I mostly get, "Wow,you're weird!" "Whose brain comes up with this stuff.?"
The Springfield area has several writers groups, Sleuth's, Ink Mystery Writers, Ozark Romance Authors,and The Writer's Guild to name a few. Believe me, these people are as weird as I am. Maybe they are a little more mainstream weird ( yes, it is possible).
Wanda Fittro wrote about an abusive relationship and I swear, you would think you were in the room.
VJ Shultz will surprise you every time with her short stories, password journals and coloring books. Shirley McCann will scare the beegeebees out of you. Before you know it you are sitting with your back to the wall so no one can walk up behind you. (I wanted to say McCann can, but thought better of it.)
If you paint, draw, care for the sick or elderly, cook, garden, or a thousand other things , you are a creator.
Stop by and tell me about your passion.
http://susankeeneauthor.com https://www.facebook.com/susanskeene1/
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