I have this problem... OK, yes, I have many problems but this one specific problem for now. It’s story creep. I don’t know if that’s a real term, but what I mean by it is, like time creep, when you expect something to be one thing, but it incrementally moves towards being another.
I’m writing a story at the moment (Not Just For Christmas, although I’m not sure it mater about the details for this discussion). In the beginning, it was a frivolous short for the Christmas competition. And then I had this fanciful notion that it would be fun to write something bigger with the characters and world I had created. This was all supposed to be light hearted, post it as I finish it, no grand plan, fun. Until today. I’m working on the next chapter, happily typing away, when I realise that I’m having to scale back different elements of the story. Having taken an hour away from it and made coffee, I think I’m trying to avoid the story becoming something else. You see, there’s also that story... you know the one, the one that’s been rattling around as an idea for seemingly forever, the one that you’ve never quite got around to fleshing out, but you have a lot of it there, in your head, just waiting for you to sit down and actually write it. So here’s my problem. My ‘light’ little story suddenly presents itself as a previously not considered opportunity to write that story. It all fits, more or less, I’d always imagined it was angels and not elves, but what’s one magical being or another between friends?
Urgh! I’m going to make more coffee becasue I don’t know what to do. And yes, you are supposed to come rescue me somehow! Or at least bring cake.
Sam