Happening at just the right time…

Things have a habit of happening to me at exactly the right time.

This is annoying as hell.

As I’m writing this, my monthly writer’s group meeting looms in my future. I have little to show – the 100 word stories that I’ve posted here, a crappy dark Christmas story, and about 3500 words in three fragments. I’ve not been able to make ANY of them work past those little fragments, but I wanted to bring something to the group.

And today I finally got a chance to get back to OSC’s How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy [1] for the first time in months.

I had stopped on page 74. On page 75, he introduces the MICE categorizations of stories (Milieu, Idea, Character, Event). By page 76, I’ve realized that all three fragments are stuck because I’m trying to write an Event story as a Character story, an Idea story as an Event story, and a Character story as an Idea story.

sigh

So what’s annoying about that?

I really would have rathered finding that out two weeks ago when I started banging my head against the wall with these stories.

C’est la vie.

[1] Yes, OSC’s homophobia (discussion here) appalls me as well.[2] The guy can still write, though, and this book, along with Characters & Viewpoint and On Writing, is constantly mentioned as an exemplary text.

[2] I don’t care if you think gay marriage is wrong. Don’t do it, then. I do get pissed when you declare that others must follow your own prejudices.