I haven’t made much progress in my writing over the last few days. I’m supposed to be working on writing for at least 30 minutes each day, either towards my Work in Progress or freewriting. Truthfully, I’m scared. Sitting in front of the computer Sunday night staring at the old notes I had taken over my WIP, it suddenly hit me as to why I had never started this project. I have no clue where to take it. This really cool over-arching premise about good and bad vampires is present. I have a set of human twins who can turn the tide. The vampires have this ancient grudge and have been fighting for years. And… that’s it. All of these questions just begin to bombard me and I don’t know the answers.
Why are they fighting?
How can I keep it from sounding religious?
Is it just going to sound like another Twilight or Vampire Diaries?
What is the purpose of the twins?
How do I add components in without sounding too much like all the paranormal/fantasy stuff that’s out there already?
What is the main freaking point?!
Where in the heck do I take these ideas?
I guess I need to figure out what’s missing so I can move forward. Let’s problem solve. Looking over my notes, there is no conflict–just a war that’s old. Obviously, backstory has to be created. I wrote mini-biographies of the four main characters, but I already know that some of this simply won’t work because I’m thinking of making the setting on a different Earth. Originally, it was supposed to be a kind of Underworld that most humans knew nothing about, but then I run into a religious aspect that I want to stay away from entirely. This means that I have to create a new Earth and a new society that has completely different beliefs about life and death than this one. Or I could keep this Earth and still create a society with different rules that humans know nothing about. Or I could create a futuristic Earth. Aaarrgghh! So many decisions!
Right now, I feel like one of my students. At this point in the writing, I would ask the student a bunch of questions that might get them moving in a one direction. Then I would offer them possible scenarios. Rarely do they choose one of mine, but it inevitably leads them to an idea of their own. Since I can’t make a copy of myself, I’m going to publish this and spend the next 30 minutes or so creating a backstory for the war. If I get nowhere with this, I may just have to scrap this idea and try another WIP until something else comes to me.
Overcoming My Ink Monster 