No Ideas

I wish I knew where my story ideas came from, and why it feels like I've run out.

The beginning of Andrew Luckless came from such an unassuming beginning that one would suppose I could generate story ideas out of anything. Granted, at the time, I was supposed to be formulating plot lines. The goal was to observe something, anything, around Charlotte, NC, and turn it into a plot.

I saw a dead fly lying on the sidewalk.

My initial plot was very similar to the initial plot in Andrew Luckless: some kid finds a dead bug, which turns out to be mechanical. A secret organization manufactures these mechanical bugs for *insert nefarious purpose here* and the kid has to link up with them for some reason to stop the *generic nefarious purpose*. That was as far as I got. The assignment was to come up with something like 5 of these plot lines over the course of the evening, so I didn't wind up developing any of them properly.

Now that I'm faced with actually developing a full plot-line, I'm having trouble. My boss recently sent round the office a compendium of useful writing advice from other authors. I love every suggestion, and I'm convinced that my troubles would be over if I could only adopt them. Yet, it's a struggle to even want to sit down and write. A writer is supposed to have some idea, even the vaguest of notions, what he or she is about to write about before he or she sits down at their escritoire. I cannot seem to formulate any idea what-so-ever. That's not entirely true. I can't seem to formulate an idea that I like.

It's the accursed third chapter. At least, that's what I'm blaming it on. The problem probably runs much deeper. I haven't developed my world enough. I haven't truly decided how the story ends, or what Andrew's main struggle is. I think the main struggle is how Andrew deals with his gift, but I'm not sure. And I know I haven't really come up with the Embracement Society's main struggle. These may be the reasons I'm stuck. Until this point, I knew exactly what happens. Andrew finds the bug. He discovers its nature. The Embracement Society finds Andrew. Then I have a loose idea that the Embracement Society happens upon Andrew's gift by chance. Then there are all these random notions of things I want to have happen, but that I haven't really worked into a true plot yet.

Perhaps I should go back and re-write the first and second chapters based on everyone's critiques. That's probably a good idea. I can do away with the third chapter and try again. The assassination attempt just doesn't work out the way it's supposed to, and Andrew turns into a good little boy when he meets Neverwell. He should probably be more desireous of the mischief and adventure that Neverwell represents. Neverwell probably shouldn't have to drug Andrew to get him to come along. Well, there's a plan at least. Perhaps I can implement it in my writing in the next few days.

A good next step should be to set aside the same time to write every day, and adhere to my schedule. If I can't write, then it should at least be to generate ideas. A dedicated idea notebook would probably not go awry. Maybe I'll use the journal Melanie gifted me.

Feels better to have a plan.