• Read this: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?288931-Guidelines-for-Participation-in-Outwitting-Writer-s-Block

    before you post.

So hard to focus my mind recently...

Status
Not open for further replies.

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
My current project is actually designing a set of oracle cards (like tarot cards but original names and meanings). But I think it's really the same activity as trying to brainstorm the story. I feel like I need to put more (relevant) raw material into my mind to stimulate ideas, but I ran out of raw material. :( Already hit the bookstore, the library, and the museum, not to mention my own bookshelf and card collection. What do you guys do when your subconscious demands to be fed truckloads of images and symbolism?
 

SianaBlackwood

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 21, 2012
Messages
735
Reaction score
99
Location
Australia
Website
sb.siasan.com
You could try looking in unconventional places. The old 'take a shower' technique - get away from the place where you create and do something that means you'd have to go to a special effort to go somewhere and write down the idea.
 

Kerosene

Your Pixie Queen
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 29, 2012
Messages
5,762
Reaction score
1,045
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
I skip it. (This is one of my sayings. "Skip it").

Symbolism and all that shit falls into my lap the more I write. I swear to God, my MC seems like a perfect "black knight" setup, with the world symbolism spelled across his face, but it's all coincidence though revisions.

I've always liked to study religions and cultures. Greek mythology is spectacular for metaphors and symbols (pretty much, all of it is a metaphor).



Added: Ask yourself: Why do you need the oracle cards? (I'm guessing character profiles) Could you just skip them, work on the project and create them as you go? Then, in a revision, go back and add them (where they are needed).

I find if you try to define yourself before a project (let's say, world building), it's far harder to stick to what you defined, rather than working into the direction the story takes you. It's like a snake shedding its skin. You create a new skin, and as time passes and progress turns, you find yourself far too cramped and have to shed it all over again.
 

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
Added: Ask yourself: Why do you need the oracle cards? (I'm guessing character profiles) Could you just skip them, work on the project and create them as you go? Then, in a revision, go back and add them (where they are needed).
Hehe, no, the project IS the oracle cards and a book of interpretations to go with them. I'm trying to make a deck to get it published.
 

Kerosene

Your Pixie Queen
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 29, 2012
Messages
5,762
Reaction score
1,045
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Hehe, no, the project IS the oracle cards and a book of interpretations to go with them. I'm trying to make a deck to get it published.

Ahh...

Have you tried collective thinking? Define a set number of terms. Let's say: Water, fire, earth, air. Then, give a set under that, branching off from it. So: Water: Ice, liquid, mist. And then breakl down even further.

Something like that. Maybe you can use mythologies as a set, and raise inspiration from them.
 

BethS

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 21, 2005
Messages
11,708
Reaction score
1,763
My current project is actually designing a set of oracle cards (like tarot cards but original names and meanings). But I think it's really the same activity as trying to brainstorm the story. I feel like I need to put more (relevant) raw material into my mind to stimulate ideas, but I ran out of raw material. :( Already hit the bookstore, the library, and the museum, not to mention my own bookshelf and card collection. What do you guys do when your subconscious demands to be fed truckloads of images and symbolism?


Let it simmer while turn your attention elsewhere. It needs time to digest.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.