Within a Forest Dark

Ah, it is hard to speak of what it was / that savage forest dense and difficult / which even in recall renews my fear - Dante


Until I reread this quote, I didn't realize how much it spoke to both my current contemplations of a story idea and my state of mind.

My mind is that "savage forest dense and difficult."

I'm always all over the place when it comes to writing.

But I feel more so right now. And I know it's due to the burgeoning story idea that is half inspired by a mental fusion of several movies I've seen and the weird dreams I've been having that all seem to—somehow—flow together to create an interesting Gothic little piece.

The only problem is: I have no idea where it's going.

Well.

Maybe that's not the problem.


If I don't know where it's going, then I have no expectations. Nothing that I'm awaiting.

I can let the story go without feeling like I have to keep running interference when it begins to veer off the course I've set. (Generally, I try to not set firm courses because, frankly, it's not worth the headache of fighting with my characters. But sometimes I have to put my foot down.)



I digress.

The problem...may be that this story seems to have little in the way of a a problem. (How meta.)

That is to say: this idea hasn't started off with a "big bad," to steal a Buffy vernacular.

There's no vampire to be staked. There's no demon to be slayed. No damsel to be rescued (physically, at least). No epic quest. No world to save.

Though some of that may come into play later on....


Right now, it's a quiet story. Very internal. Psychological? Man vs. Himself.  (I think there's some Man vs. Man to come.)

(I honestly think this is the first idea that I've had where I couldn't pinpoint the Problem and have some idea of the Resolution.)

In previous story ideas, I've had the death of a lover, the murder of a child by his sibling, the courtship of a Sea King, the arrival of strange bird beings, the slow destruction of a woman's individuality.

With this thing, I've just got a whole mess of images, short scenes, pieces of dialogue and a general idea of how the two characters met.

I know the Plot Point is in there somewhere, but I can't ferret it out.

Maybe I should just sit down and let the characters yammer until I find a thread I can grab onto. Let them map out their desires in words and then dangle those desires in front of them and see what the do....


I don't think I've ever had characters who live in their heads quite as much as these two do.

Most of my characters—some more introspective than others—have com along, ready to jump into the fray. They've got a story and they want to tell it.


These two. They're like a pot I've put on to boil. I wait and I watch and I think I spy a couple of bubbles out of the corner of my eye only to turn and find the water as flat and smooth as glass.