Monday, August 13, 2007

"Add it to the queue"

Vivien and I were fairly prolific writers on our own, which was fine, because we both wrote fast. But now that we write together, it's a little out of control. I would love to tell you how many "plot bunnies" we have on the queue, but I honestly cannot. Vivien probably could, but she's the one who keeps track of it. If there were twenty ideas and titles, I wouldn't be shocked. If there were thirty, I wouldn't be shocked. ETA: I've been told that the number is 33. Not counting the number Vivien forgets to log because we think of it at 1:00 am and she's tired. So it's probably closer to 40.

Sometimes we express the legitimate fear that we won't get to all our ideas. That some will disappear. Or fizzle out. Or we just won't have time to get to all the really great ones.

Once in awhile, we get lucky, and the stars align, and two or more of our bunnies can fit together. Like our current project, An Innocent Proposition, was born from her desire to write a hero that could only get an erection by watching other people having sex, and my desire to write a "marriage of convenience" story. Yes, the two ideas mesh quite well. So well in fact that we're in "the zone." We've already got nearly 30K on this novel. We started it Thursday night.

So, where do all these ideas come from? I wish I knew. I'd bottle it and sell it. It's almost a party trick at this point. Anything can set us off. We've been inspired by the following:
  1. A word (ie, Craving)
  2. A picture
  3. A concept
  4. A song
  5. A pretty boy
  6. An urge for an alpha male
  7. A movie trailer
  8. Books we didn't like
  9. Movies we didn't like
  10. "Oh, I've always wanted to write a..."
etc

Sometimes we get our ideas separately. Sometimes we have to hash them out together. But they're always there. Waiting to be born. Waiting for that one second when inspiration will strike. And it will strike. That's a given.

In fact, we thought of an idea while I was composing this post. And yes, Vivien added it to the queue. When I was working alone, most of my stories came from "Man, that would be HOT!" place. Seriously. I just thought of the porn I wish I were watching, and then wrote it. Writing with Vivien is a lot like that, except she usually makes me work in considerations besides how hot it is.

I hope I have a few writers reading this blog. Probably it's just me talking into the void. But if you are out there, how do you get your bunnies? And how many do you have? How do you wrangle all of them? Are you ever scared that maybe you won't get around to writing all of them?

2 comments:

Vivien Dean said...

Don't forget our individual bunnies. I have 6 bunnies on the list of my solo ideas, and I know you've got as much of that in your own head that aren't on my spreadsheet. We are just insane, I've decided. Because it doesn't seem like it should be this simple.

Pepper Espinoza said...

Yeah, I've got six...no...eight...no, ten (Christ!) projects in various stages right now.