Oh, the Meta!

I was thinking this morning of one of the stories I read in the latest journal that’s caught my attention, Literary Laundry, and how I could come up with a story that might have a bit more social poignancy and resonance than my current measly selection of stories ready for print. It started with the thought of something in the near future, a skewed version of life as we know it now, with some sort of metaphor on human nature or politics or something important like that. As far as near future possibilities go, my mind almost immediately goes to zombies, but a little voice pointed out in my head that zombies are getting so popular lately that it will seem passe and be immediately written off. So I thought about it some more, going through a collection of other options, with the little voice weighing in, when I realized that that was it! That little voice was the story. I’ll write a story about trying to write a big, important, thoughtful story, with the characters objecting and critiquing and helping it as I go along.

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I know it’s been done before; it’s not exactly an original concept to have your characters talk to you in your work as a symbol of how the writer has little control over what he or she is composing, that it’s all influenced either by some imaginative forces or altered by the idea of how it will be perceived by readers. But I haven’t tried it before, and I think, as it stands now, it’s finishing up with the suggestion of dinosaurs with laser eyes, and so anything with that in it is worth a try, I think. Either way, it popped into my head while I was brushing my teeth this morning, so I’m going to try to give it a go while I’m bored at work later today.

Also, some of you who may have been following me for a while (yeah, that’s right, you, because you’re awesome!) may have noticed I changed my layout and started adding pictures. Look at me, getting all fancy! I’m personally liking the new look, but let me know if you have any thoughts contrary to that.

Enjoy your Sundays, everyone! I’m off to try to clean up a bit after the flooding a little more, but mostly be distracted with more reading and writing!