A while ago I wrote about slowing down. What could be slower than a few days camping in the desert? No internet, the phones died our second night there, nothing to actively distract or divert. In my last post, I wrote that I hoped the process of slowing down my internet (and media) consumption would spark some creative juices. Well, this post is to say that it worked.
While we were there, I started developing an idea for a story unlike any other story I’ve ever tried to write. I’ve always written contemporary, urban fiction or else sci-fi tinged stories — this would be a fantasy story/novel/whatever. I have a lot of ideas going into it that are unlike anything I’ve ever seen in most fiction, let alone fantasy stories. And it features a character I know I can write about because it’s based on someone about as near and dear to me as anyone can be without being me — my wife. It’s still pretty rough, and I’m just getting started, but I’m pretty excited and I’ve been making it a point to write at least a little each day.
On a related note, here’s another article about the Slow Web movement, courtesy of @photomatt’s blog. The Slow Web, Jack Cheng.