The Stories Spilling Out of Me

How I choose what to write next.

It’s not a humble brag to say that my problem is usually too many ideas, not too few. Choosing is the hard part.

What I mean by that is that finishing (and repeatedly editing a story) means my next step is often to stare at a piece of paper or a screen and worry over which story I want to write next.

As someone who struggles with decision making at the best of times, this process can go on for days and days if I let it. Often I’m tossing out old ideas of flesh-gnawing monsters and mind-probing aliens for new ones, or over-complicating simple ones in my head before I resurrect those I’ve tossed aside.

But sometimes my choice is related to length or general excitement. But usually, most of the time in fact, what makes the choice for me is theme. As someone who loves stories set in other worlds or times, that feature creatures and abilities from beyond our norms, it’s not about the ghouls or aliens or faceless monsters much of the time.

Instead, I gravitate toward the point. What is the overall message? Granted, I never try to hit my reader over the head with it, and sometimes a story’s meaning is open to interpretation. But much of the time I write to explore diversity, change, and how people from different backgrounds become enmeshed in problems when they try to do the right thing.

That’s often what helps me to come up with my characters, the greater world, and makes it all feel much deeper.

I write this mainly for myself. It’s a reminder that sometimes a fun idea of an eldritch horror from beyond the stars is just an idea. At least, that is, until I know who is facing off against it and why.

For more, find me at substack.com/@gregsorin