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I was up 'til 3.30am last night getting that BIG PROJECT website online and live for the client. It all went pretty smoothly, but I'd been up since 6.30am the previous morning and I was exhausted.
Nevertheless, I had to be up again early this morning to take the kids to school. I didn't go back to bed like I was planning to though.
Instead, and with welcome cheers, the writing bug decided to return!
I've been a bit too brain-drained and tired of late to write, and the ideas just weren't flowing too much either. But, now that the BIG PROJECT is done, the ideas have come with dam-busting force. I'm still tired, but who cares. Writing comes first, especially when my thoughts are running so fast I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. And, by the time I did fall asleep, it would be time to wake up and pick the boys up from school again.
So, furiously jotting down ideas and scouring the web for research material.
Lots of fun, especially as the idea currently at the forefront is a new Clowntown story. I've had the idea to do something about a rodeo clown for a while, but never found the catalyst to bring that story out.
Last night, whilst working on the site change-over, I was listening to a collection of Ennio Morricone soundtracks. The music must have worked its way into all the right writerly places of my mind whilst I slept though.
Firstly, I think showers -hot, blasting showers- are a great tool in the writer's toolbox. I can't count the amount of times I've lost myself in the steam of a hot shower, only to find the pieces that have drifted separate through my unconscious for who knows how long are finally clicking into place.
This morning's shower: I heard those Ennio Morricone sound tracks; I thought of a rodeo clown; I thought of A Fistful of Dollars and Clint Eastwood.
From those ingredients cameth the full picture, and thus The Rodeo Clown With No Name was born.
It will contain greed, corruption, good-guys and bad-guys, a frontier town, a shoot-out, and lots of clowns!
The title?
"Once Upon a Time in Clowntown"
The first line?
"The cowboy stood atop the ridge and looked down upon the town."
Tonight, I'm going to open a bottle of shiraz, un-wrap some crumbly vintage cheese, and drag out the Dollars Trilogy again from the DVD rack and watch them all.
Then I'll write the rest of the story.
Even better part? This story falling into place has also led to a previously, most unfortunately, aborted Clowntown story falling into place too!
My Clowntown gangster noir novellette "A Plan for Pierrot" was going very nicely until I worked out that I didn't actually have a Plan to give Pierrot!
Now I do, and I'll be going back to finish that one as soon as "Once Upon a Time in Clowntown" is complete.
That will make 5 Clowntown stories in total - if you count "Calliope: A Steam Romance" as it has links with "All the Clowns in Clowntown". Although it seems these stories are all going to be written and published out of chronological order, here is how they would run on a Clowntown timeline:
"Calliope: A Steam Romance" (set 1910 - alternate history/streampunk) - published "Show Plays" anthology (2007).
"A Plan for Pierrot" (set in Clowntown - modern noir) - unpublished, incomplete
"The Dumbshow" (set outside Clowntown - Shakespeare's Tempest, with mimes) - published "Masques" anthology (2009)
"All the Clowns in Clowntown" (set in Clowntown - dark fantasy) - to be published "Macabre: A Journey Through Australian Horror" anthology (2009)
"Once Upon a Time in Clowntown" (set in New Clowntown - rodeo clown western) - unpublished, incomplete
I like the fact that the stories are coming out of order though. Jumping backwards and forwards is quite fun, and I think it allows me to reveal things in very different ways to if the stories were written (and/or read) in a straight chronological order. Mainly, I just like being back in the world of the clowns :)
Nevertheless, I had to be up again early this morning to take the kids to school. I didn't go back to bed like I was planning to though.
Instead, and with welcome cheers, the writing bug decided to return!
I've been a bit too brain-drained and tired of late to write, and the ideas just weren't flowing too much either. But, now that the BIG PROJECT is done, the ideas have come with dam-busting force. I'm still tired, but who cares. Writing comes first, especially when my thoughts are running so fast I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. And, by the time I did fall asleep, it would be time to wake up and pick the boys up from school again.
So, furiously jotting down ideas and scouring the web for research material.
Lots of fun, especially as the idea currently at the forefront is a new Clowntown story. I've had the idea to do something about a rodeo clown for a while, but never found the catalyst to bring that story out.
Last night, whilst working on the site change-over, I was listening to a collection of Ennio Morricone soundtracks. The music must have worked its way into all the right writerly places of my mind whilst I slept though.
Firstly, I think showers -hot, blasting showers- are a great tool in the writer's toolbox. I can't count the amount of times I've lost myself in the steam of a hot shower, only to find the pieces that have drifted separate through my unconscious for who knows how long are finally clicking into place.
This morning's shower: I heard those Ennio Morricone sound tracks; I thought of a rodeo clown; I thought of A Fistful of Dollars and Clint Eastwood.
From those ingredients cameth the full picture, and thus The Rodeo Clown With No Name was born.
It will contain greed, corruption, good-guys and bad-guys, a frontier town, a shoot-out, and lots of clowns!
The title?
"Once Upon a Time in Clowntown"
The first line?
"The cowboy stood atop the ridge and looked down upon the town."
Tonight, I'm going to open a bottle of shiraz, un-wrap some crumbly vintage cheese, and drag out the Dollars Trilogy again from the DVD rack and watch them all.
Then I'll write the rest of the story.
Even better part? This story falling into place has also led to a previously, most unfortunately, aborted Clowntown story falling into place too!
My Clowntown gangster noir novellette "A Plan for Pierrot" was going very nicely until I worked out that I didn't actually have a Plan to give Pierrot!
Now I do, and I'll be going back to finish that one as soon as "Once Upon a Time in Clowntown" is complete.
That will make 5 Clowntown stories in total - if you count "Calliope: A Steam Romance" as it has links with "All the Clowns in Clowntown". Although it seems these stories are all going to be written and published out of chronological order, here is how they would run on a Clowntown timeline:
"Calliope: A Steam Romance" (set 1910 - alternate history/streampunk) - published "Show Plays" anthology (2007).
"A Plan for Pierrot" (set in Clowntown - modern noir) - unpublished, incomplete
"The Dumbshow" (set outside Clowntown - Shakespeare's Tempest, with mimes) - published "Masques" anthology (2009)
"All the Clowns in Clowntown" (set in Clowntown - dark fantasy) - to be published "Macabre: A Journey Through Australian Horror" anthology (2009)
"Once Upon a Time in Clowntown" (set in New Clowntown - rodeo clown western) - unpublished, incomplete
I like the fact that the stories are coming out of order though. Jumping backwards and forwards is quite fun, and I think it allows me to reveal things in very different ways to if the stories were written (and/or read) in a straight chronological order. Mainly, I just like being back in the world of the clowns :)
