Time Management

[teleidoplex]

What do you do when you have an idea for a story that you're pretty sure right from the start is irredeemably bad?

I woke up this morning with such an idea.  I often wake up with ideas that I jot down - opening lines that go nowhere, titles that have no story attached, weird plots that make absolutely no sense five minutes later.  This isn't always a bad thing.  And The came out of a non-sensical dream plot.  But sometimes I think it can be bad, and today I struggled with wasting my time on a story that I don't think has any positive social or literary value.

The title is The Angel in the Walls, and the story is about a stereotypical, poorly-educated hick-child who hears voices.  He lives in an old church that (unbeknownst to him) has structural elements that pick up radio signals (a tired old trope if ever there was one).  He thinks 'Angels' are talking to him, telling him what God wants him to do and think, when really it's neo-conservative pundits on the radio, a'la Glen Beck or Sarah Palin.  After seeking guidance from his elders, who either shut him down as an imaginitive child or tell him that obedience to God is absolute (apparently, nobody in my story has heard of schizophrenia, or the tired trope of metal structures and dentistry picking up radio signals), the kid takes daddy's gun and, per Angelic instruction, goes off to shoot a local big-wig. 

So.  Like I said.  Irredeemable.  I'm embarrassed even writing that last paragraph.  It's dismissive of the nuances of human experience and perspective (crazy, backhills hicks!  Crazy neo-cons!  Crazy everyone-who-doesn't-think-like-me!).  It hits several tired tropes and does nothing new or interesting with them (I kilt him cuz the dawg tol' me to!), and it exploits a recent, real-world tragedy without (again) offering any kind of enrichment, enlightenment, or new perspective.

What do you do when the Angels in the Walls talk to you and tell you to write a story like this?  You wake up and think it through, and realize that not everything that comes out of your dreaming brain is gold or can be turned into gold.  You bring out the guy with the broom and the white coveralls, and you tell him to sweep that junk down into the pit for the big purple Dune Worms to eat up and make into creativity compost  (that's a whole other post, my purple-Dune-worm fear compost post).

Good.  I no longer feel conflicted about whether I should waste time pursuing that idea. Thank you, internets.

Comments

[drydem.livejournal.com]

I think sometimes ideas like that are worth development, just like sometimes it's worth walking down a road that you think is a dead end, because sometimes, there's an open garden path at the end, and you find your way through, and if not, then you know it's a dead end and why.

[teleidoplex]

I agree that this is sometimes true. I think for me the issue is that I have a panic impulse that kicks in whenever I have a creative urge and _don't_ take the time to evaluate whether it's worthwhile to pursue at the moment. If you remember the scene from The Crow, where Eric Draven is injecting Fun-Boy with the heroin, and Fun-Boy cries out "You're wasting it! You're wasting it!"... that is _literally_ the image and voice that goes through my head at those times.

It's possible that eventually I will run into another thought or text or realization that can be combined with this one and jiggled through my teleidoplex to create something awesome and transcendent, but as the idea stands right now, it only hits one note, and poorly at that. But at least I got it down, so I can come back to it if inspiration _does_ strike. Or maybe someone else will see the idea and it will spark something for them.

Heh. After all, ideas are cheap.

[mindyklasky.livejournal.com]

When I come up with ideas that I rapidly realize are (or feel) trite, I try to examine how I can change them up. What if the voices tell him to do good? What if the voices are *real*, even though the walls do conduct radio waves too? What if the main character is a wealthy, well-educated privileged person? Etc.

Sometimes (often!) the story ideas still aren't worth pursuing. But sometimes I break out of lazy grooves.

[sosemhyceab.livejournal.com]

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