The Anatomy and Creation of a Story – Pt. 5

So…my brain has been running at full speed for a while now, story ideas, novel ideas, the usual things that fill my idle moments (yeah, like I have those). I’ve come up with at least two novel ideas, plus a third that would fit my DeChance Chronicles series. That doesn’t even touch on the short stories.

The thing is, it’s a wonderful exercise, and I’m having a lot of fun with it. I never really considered myself a unicorn person, but hey – they’ve gotten the short shrift in the fantasy creature hall of fame. They get painted pink and white, dressed in lace, given to little girls as toys, and can only be tamed by virgins. They get made into decorative mirrors and only manage bit parts in Arthurian legends, but let’s think about this.

I can imagine a truckload of monsters I’d rather face off against than a full grown horse with a long, sharp pointy thing on his head. I can think of very FEW more magnificent. The powers attributed to them by folklore and legend are among the most astonishing in history. Very few magical items have elicited such devotion, desire, or been the basis of so many dreams.

Once I started integrating the unicorn lore and imagery into the ideas I would have been thinking about anyway, I found myself needing to get out paper and pen to write them all down, because odds are I’m going to write several. I also doubt I’m going to be able to evade a novel with a unicorn…and it frightens me.

I have to assume that any similar research, deep thought, and effort could do the same. If I start listing Werewolf ideas, and giant snake ideas, and stories inspired by different wines and different whiskey, and….you get the drift. I’ll never catch up.

You can take any subject or theme, think about it long enough, and find something worth writing in the process. When I was working on the stories for “Lost & Found,” a collection that will someday see print featuring stories by myself and Neil Gaiman that were inspired by Lisa Snelling’s art, I used the images as wallpaper on my computer. I carried around printouts. I thought about them all the time until something clicked…and then I wrote. Those are five of my best stories, and when they get closer to print I’ll probably revisit how some of them came to be.

For now…unicorns.

-DNW