Candle in the Wind

I am writing this while battling hayfever, it is a modest battle, of course, but even the smallest battles have to be lost or won.

I asked my cat what I should write about in today's post. As expected I recieved a meeow in reply. Fortunately I am quite well-versed in 'cat' and was able to translate her idea into the following post.

I'm afraid this is going to be a writing post, there is enough talk of the elections elsewhere, after all, and it doesn't seem as though anything else is going on so writing it is. Fortunately the title 'Candle In the Wind' lends itself to my purposes.

The Candle in the Wind in question is a new idea for a sitcom. I say it is in the wind because unless I nuture it and let it grow then it will likely be snuffed out and will join the multitude of ideas that I could have written but somehow never did. This stage can be very exciting as new ideas rush around my head but I know that, unless treated carefully, it will never be more than that. There is a difference between me pondering an idea and me preparing an idea to be written.

For mostly my own benefit I am going to think about how I start pinning down my ideas ready to be written. I think my easiest way of doing this is by listing each stage as I do it.

1. I write a spider diagram of everything I already know about the idea. Sometimes this just includes random words for example this time I have written 'If' 'Man' 'Dad' 'Gap year' as spider diagram points, I don't need to elaborate them at this stage. In fact, usually at this stage I don't know more than that.

2. I look at sources of inspiration and works of literature/ film / music which I feel have links to this project. In this case it is Rudyard Kipling's poem 'If' I use these sources of inspiration to gradually add points to my idea- I often keep going back to this stage as I find more inspiration. Looking at my notes now it seems I am heading in a different direction to what I thought originally- maybe this isn't a comedy (that might match my sense of humour better).

3. When I have got this far I add the main characater to these vague points and bring them together trying to think of situations and character traits that will best feed the story. I still don't order them- more random words scattered on a page.

4. I now start putting numbers next to the plot points I have thought of, sometimes jotting logical links between them.

5. I begin writing. I don't like things to be too planned out but I like to have just enough to keep things moving.

Right, that's it. Sorry about that, I'm sure that my ramblings about writing aren't that interesting to anyone else, everyone has their own way of dealing with these things, after all. You just have to do what works for you. The above works for me.

I will try to come back oon Monday with something a little more interesting. I won't promise anything, though.

Oh, and if you really found today's post boring- blame the cat, it was her ideas. Complaints can be sent to:

Tilly Speckles
The bed
My parents Bedroom
My house
England

Unfortunately she cannot receive emails or phone calls currently, we are working on updating our customer services in the near future.

I you want to see me in something a bit more interesting (mostly because I didn't think of the idea), hop on over to- http://samuelerobinson.blogspot.com/