Choosing what to write

One of the hardest things for me, and I would imagine many other authors, is choosing what it is I want to write. It's part of the reason I have a tendency to write these blog posts at night before I go to bed. It's not that I don't want to write, or that I don't have time. It's just that when I sit down to write, I find myself staring at a blank document, unsure of where to start. You'd think it would be simple, but unless you sit down to do it yourself, you'll never truly understand the frustration of trying to decide what to write.

For my entire life, I have always told people that I want to write medieval fantasy. And that's true. Medieval fantasy stories are the ones that most easily draw me in, they're what I'm most familiar with, and they're what I think about the most. They're the reason I became interested in both reading and writing, and in fact, the middle ages were the first thing in my life that I showed true interest in, and even to today, they are my favorite thing to learn about. But truth be told, I still don't know all that much about the medieval period, and I find enjoyment in writing all genres. Well, at least all fictional genres.

I sometimes find that medieval fantasy is the hardest genre for me to write, and I can't fully explain why. I know a lot of the material that I need to know to write a fictional story in the genre. I know lots about different medieval weapons, how they are used, and I have general ideas of different occupations, building styles, and the like. Not a lot of specifics, but you can get away without specifics a lot of the time. And yet, when I write them, the story gets out of hand for me. It spirals out of my control. I'm not one to try and control my stories, as I want them to be as organic as possible, but I do have my limitations.

I think my biggest problem is the list of characters. It's not that I don't have an interest in them. I love archers, knights, blacksmiths, kings and queens, all of them. But that's kind of the problem. I'm the kind of person who can't keep track of a lot of people in my mind at once. I get things muddled and confused. And for some reason, by nature, medieval fantasy stories have an extensive list of characters. Even knowing that this is a problem for me, it becomes difficult to try and slim down the list. Somehow, it's just unavoidable.

So, despite my love for the genre, I find myself oft writing pieces in different areas. Admittedly, however, it's difficult for me to shake the fantasy aspect. Fantasy works for me. You don't need extensive explanations for things. Why does something happen? Because magic. It just works. And you can still place limits on things. Logical limits, depending on the source and power of the magic. Magic is fascinating because it can be anything you want it to be. Without getting too into it, I don't feel like science fiction gives that same kind of freedom. You can still have freedom, but it requires more explanation, more intricate knowledge of what you're trying to do. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just not my thing.

One of my favorite pieces, and one of my few completed stories, is a fairly generic western. I'm not going to pretend that it was some breakthrough in story telling, or that I somehow made it particularly unique. It wasn't. But I was able to focus on the characters, try and develop them, make them have an interesting backstory and growth, at least in my eyes. I've tried to do that in medieval fantasy, and my story just drags on and never gets finished.

I suppose the answer to this is to try more things. Keep coming around and back, do things over and over until I can make them work. I need to practice more. And that's what I'm here to do. That's why I'm writing this blog everyday.

But damn. If it ain't hard finding what to practice each day.