I did a guest blog post!

I'm moving up in the world. Other people are trusting me to give expert advice! Check out the awesome Clare Davidson's blog, wherein I talk a bit about character development: how to do it, and why it's important.

http://www.claredavidson.com/blog/839-tuesday-writin

Clare is the author of the Young Adult novel Trinity, and does Writing Tips on her blog every Tuesday, as well as other cool and interesting things throughout the week. Check her out.

Ad Infinitum...

I love the names of the air conditioning companies I write articles for. Some of them are just, "So-and-so's Heating and Cooling," or "Such-and-such Air." But some of them are more interesting: Things like "Aggressive Mechanical" or "The LBA Heroes." There's usually a story behind them. Or if there's not, I make one up, for my own amusement.

One in particular, though: It's a Corpus Christi Air Conditioning company, and they call themselves CCAC. So what does CCAC stand for? Go on, guess. Try.

It stands for "Constantly Concerned About Customers." Yes, that's their actual name, I imagine it goes on their tax forms and everything. It turns out, CCAC USED to stand for "Corpus Christi Air Conditioning," as you would think... But then the company came under new management, and they changed to Constantly Concerned About Customers." Except, since the new name doesn't actually indicate that they're an air conditioning company, for clarity's sake they stick "Air Conditioning" on the end of the name and call themselves CCACAC.

It seems to me, though, that this sets their company on a slippery slope. If they changed their name based on their initials once, what's to prevent them from doing it again? Then they might become, "Comfort, Caring, Absolute Consistency, And Charisma." Which STILL doesn't have Air Conditioning in the name, so they'd have to be CCACACAC. Which would then lead to a name like, "Calvin Coolidge's All Canadian Acrobatic Clydesdales Across the Congo." Which doesn't even imply anything to DO with Air Conditioning, so they'd have to call themselves CCACACACAC.

This could literally go on forever, and eventually they would collapse under the weight of their own initials.

The Plethora of Ideas...

A thought that never ceases to amaze me: There are ideas everywhere. Literally everywhere. Seriously, look behind you. There's an idea there right now. I wasn't going to say anything, because I didn't want to embarrass you, but... It's been sort of hovering over you for awhile now. Thought you might like to take it and do something with it. Looks kind of like a short story to me, but you may decide to turn it into a novel, or maybe a TV pilot. You could even turn it into a painting, a scientific theorem, or a political speech if you want. Who am I to say? It's your idea, after all. Do what you want with it.

Since there are ideas everywhere you turn, where you get your ideas depends entirely on where you spend your time and what it is you're doing. For myself, I've been writing about air conditioners. I mentioned in my previous blog that some of my research had given me an idea for a murder mystery. Other research has yielded ideas for space travel and superhero stories. About air conditioners. That's just what research does. It sparks creativity and gives you ideas.

But it's not just the research. As I said, I ideas are everywhere. The titles they give me for my articles. The names of the companies I'm writing for. A couple of months ago, there was one called Cypress Creek Air. And I thought, "That's going to be the title of my next play." Why a play? I don't know, just sounds right. What's it going to be about? Haven't a clue. That idea is still out there somewhere.

Which of course raises the issue: There may be ideas everywhere, but are they all GOOD ideas? Well, that's subjective. Ideas themselves are rarely good or bad. What matters is the person having the idea, and what they decide to do with it. In the hands of, say, Ridley Scott instead of Ed Wood, Plan 9 from Outer Space could have been a brilliant sci-fi thriller. Or maybe not.

Same goes for my own ideas. I have high hopes for my air conditioning murder mystery, but I seriously doubt that my Cypress Creek Air stage play will go on to be at all successful or even very good (I started to outline a basic plot; it didn't work). Sometimes (if you have the luxury), you just need to cut your losses on an idea and move on from it. Maybe a few months or a few years down the road, you'll come back to it with a fresh perspective, and everything will start fitting together. Or maybe it won't. But don't worry about it. Something else will jell better, and you'll turn it into something great. After all, there are ideas literally everywhere.

What you DO with those ideas, is up to you.

The wonders of research...

Freelance article-writing requires a lot of research on a lot of random topics. As a consequence, I end up learning a lot of things on topics I was previously only vaguely aware existed. Types of area rugs. Investment banking. Air conditioners. Some of it is really interesting. Some of it's really, really not. But as a writer, I live in the hope that this knowledge will someday prove useful in a future story. I currently have in the back of my mind an idea for a murder mystery wherein the pertinent clue involves a knowledge of air conditioning repair.

Anyway, here's a fun trivium my research has shown me:

We all know that duct tape is extremely useful and handy to have around. The virtues of duct tape have been extolled throughout society. Whole books have been written on what you can do with duct tape. I once had a daily calendar of duct tape anecdotes, how-to suggestions, etc. Some people say it can do anything.

They're almost right. There seems to be only one thing that duct tape cannot do. Somewhat ironically... it can't repair ducts. It loses its adhesiveness and lets air leak out underneath it.

But just about anything else...

So apparently I have a blog...

Several years ago I started at least two or three different blogs, in different places, with the intention of using them to post stories and serial fiction. It never really worked out that way, because by the time I would have a new story to post (and remember to post it) I found I'd forgotten not only my username and password, but also what site the blog was on in the first place. So I'd have to start a different blog, in a new place. Mercifully, this didn't go on for TOO long, because I quickly realized that the whole blog thing wasn't working out after all. Fast forward to the present. Over the last few months, I've been doing a lot of freelance writing. Some of it is really interesting, some of it is kind of funny, and a lot of it is just plain weird. So I've been thinking again, "You know... I really should have a blog, to document this experience." There are a whole bunch of random anecdotes and observations I'd love to share about the life of a freelance writer. But up until now, I never really got around to it, because I remember all my previous problems with posting blogs... Which brings us to today. I wanted to post a reply to someone else's blog, and it told me I could do so with my Google account. So I did... and above my comment, it lists a name. Not my name, but one I recognized, if only vaguely. It was the name of a blog I'd started, all those years ago. Evidently this was one of the places where I started a blog and never followed through. Now here it is again. And it's connected to my Google account, which I have no trouble remembering or accessing. So I guess I have a blog. Maybe I'll use it to post all those wonderfully droll observations I've had on the life of a freelance writer. Or maybe I'll forget all about it and let it languish for another four years. Only time will tell...