tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8417850843973944836.post3337022571203151799..comments2024-02-27T00:19:14.984-08:00Comments on Burning Zeppelin Experience: Ghost StoriesMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16741134687274260833noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8417850843973944836.post-60055920886335565062008-11-16T23:45:00.000-08:002008-11-16T23:45:00.000-08:00In the introduction to "Frost and Fire," Roger Zel...In the introduction to "Frost and Fire," Roger Zelazny titled his essay "An Exorcism, Of Sorts." He talks about the three "types" of stories he writes - images, characters, and plots - and how sometimes the wrong characters will come and camp out in a plotline where they don't fit, or a striking image will present itself without any clues for a conflict and a plotline. <BR/><BR/>He also talks about having these stories in his head, half-finished, as "living with ghosts," which I think was a very apt description. He goes on to describe an idea he had which he can't get rid of and which had been intruding every time he sat down to write. (It involved the notion that heavy landmasses, like mountain ranges, have corresponding depths beneath them, like anti-mountains, and the notion that maybe a sufficiently massive city might have an anti-analogue on the flip side of the Earth's crust.) He expressed the hope that by describing it there, it would finally go away and leave him free to write something else. Still, by and large, he talked about how he rather enjoyed "living with ghosts."<BR/><BR/>I live with a lot of ghosts. I like to review them from time to time, sometimes add bits or polish sections. Maybe one day I'll write them all. (In the meantime, I'm using my flitterfics as exorcisms of my own, shedding half-ready ideas in tiny lozenge form, possibly to be mined for full use later and in the meantime being WRITTEN DOWN and not soaking up precious mental resources.)Scattercathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00302815654553659644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8417850843973944836.post-86512629119398673732008-11-14T18:27:00.000-08:002008-11-14T18:27:00.000-08:00I love that story. And hey, it's even a finished ...I <I>love</I> that story. And hey, it's even a finished one!Beccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11095275967947187449noreply@blogger.com