Rut writing

I’m feeling stuck in a groove, a rut, when it comes to my writing. Granted, I’ve lost the vanpool time, which means no hour long stretches each way to sleep/write/think, but it isn’t just that.

For #nanowrimo last year, I worked on a science fiction story. I made the 50k goal, although the resulting piece certainly wasn’t what I would call complete. Pieces of the story had been inspired by some short stories I had written years ago, so in a sense it was easy – I was building in an already populated universe.

When #nanowrimo ended, I wanted to keep the momentum going, but I wanted a genre break. Winter was setting in, and that’s often a time I turn to reading fantasy (not sure why – maybe because I first read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe in December of ’84?), so I tried to write a fantasy novel with as much gusto as I could muster (see any of my posts about The Dreaming Pools). But again, I was borrowing from a pre-created world of mine from a novel attempt back in college, which ultimately left a stale taste in my mouth. I pretty much already knew this world – there were new nuances, but nothing to make it any more special than when it died on the vine back then.

Now the seasons change again, and an urge to write science fiction is creeping up on me. Doesn’t help that #nanowrimo is “just around the corner,” so to speak. But when I start thinking about the kind of novel I’d like to write and start taking notes, I realize its in the same old Universe I’ve stabbed at a few other times.

Its not that its a bad Universe, as far as fictional settings go, and each outting reveals more of it. I think part of the problem is that I end up returning to the same stories in that Universe each time.

I’m stuck in a rut.

In fantasy, that’s more understandable – while there is certainly a myriad of fresh, new talents and approaches these days, ultimately you have force vs force (not necessarily good vs evil, but still), and its hard to escape at least some of the standard baggage, whether that be quest, world in peril, or whatnot.

So why am I so trapped in this rut? I need a fresh story break. Something that doesn’t even live close to the universes I have written about before.

[icon image by rogersmith at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogersmith/]