Whew. The plan was a to do this blog once a week on Wednesdays and here it is Saturday. It’s been that kind of week, with home renos, family demands, and mostly a push I’m in right now to prep a couple novels to go up as e-books.
The writing stuff, especially, has a way of distorting time perceptions wildly. Without my kids’ school schedules to keep me aware of the days of the week, I suspect I’d readily get lost in whatever time frame my novel’s operating in versus the one I’m supposedly operating in. (My wife’s schedule doesn’t help much. Long hours, many weekends.)
So the short story idea? A writer progressively trapped by the time flow of the novel he’s writing. At first it just affects his ability to relate to the outside world – he misses a couple appointments, he shocks his wife with his get-to-work intensity on a Sunday morning. Then it seems to be having more profound effects as his changing the timing of events in his novel, compressing or expanding the time they fit within, affects the flow of time in his own life.
To make it work, you’d have to set up a number of real-life schedules and scheduled events, maybe even emphasizing how the writer’s external life has a lot of regularly schedules demands. Maybe he’s a diabetic who has to take regular insulin shots. Maybe he has a serious heart condition and needs to take regular pills for it. Give him a deadline for turning in his manuscript and/or meeting his editor to discuss his next series. Throw in a random disaster like his wife being in a car accident.
Then muck with the time. Lots of fun. And hey, writing should always be fun. Add a meaningful setup about scheduled time in the beginning for a payoff at the end, and pow. You’ve got yourself a story.
