That's The Spirit

[bloodyrosemccoy]

The hypomanic idea storm of a couple of weeks ago has died down somewhat, to the point where I can actually focus on other stories besides ALL THE GOOD IDEAS. It's admittedly unpleasant to have those episodes, but the good part is that then I'm left with a year's worth of material to process when I'm in my less crazed state.

This time around it's left me with some supertangential characters in OGYAFEland. I don't know if they'll ever see the light of day beyond one short story that should work, because they're a little bit melodramatic. However, following my recent post on creative truths, I'm finding these characters interesting to work with because they really do follow the casual animism of OGYAFEland a little more literally than my main OGYAFE characters do.

The idea in OGYAFEland is that they proudly insist they don't have gods, but have a hugely extensive belief in spirits and fairies. The idiom reflects this, and a lot of people are willing to follow the traditions of leaving offerings to the spirits, but some are more attuned to it than others. And this is a somewhat modern society--kind of mid-20th-Century, give or take--which means that the fairies are willing to adapt to the changing nature of magic and technology. I like seeing how a belief that they have a lot of little personal, localized spirits hanging around affects these somewhat modernized characters' actions.

Plus, it's just fun to be able to have a character casually say something like "Sure, you can borrow my car, but beware of the bad fairies living in the transmission" and have others take them seriously. It's the little things.

Comments

[childthursday.livejournal.com]

Have you ever tracked your weeks of productivity and manic idea storms and chasing plot bunnies and then seasons of steady grind work? I have realized that summer is actually my worst period for writing, but best for handcrafts, while winter works well for sustained scholarly writing and spring is the season of fiction. Basically I want to see your creativity seasons.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I seem to have these vaguely hypomanic episodes for a few days in or around September. It's funny because it doesn't look like you'd expect mania to look. I don't dart around like a crazed squirrel on meth or write a thousand pages or anything; I just sort of drift around with a glazed look on my face, and good luck having a conversation with me. But that's because so much is happening INSIDE my head that I just have to let it do its thing. (Also, it has rather trashier taste than my usual headspace does. Which is pretty entertaining, but also means that I wind up having to dial back the hyperdrama in the actual writing.)

I also get more interested in actually making things around this time of year--sewing, crafting, stuff like that. I think late winter/spring is my fastest actual writing period, after I've let the aftermath of the Idea Firehose settle and ferment a bit.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who has creativity seasons!