New Story

I'm writing a new story, a planetary romance in the manner of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore; and I've been posting as I work on the story:

I am not happy with how the new story is going, but I really like the background. So I am trying a new approach.

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I have 2,000 words of my planetary romance. I have the setting, the situation, the lead characters and some nice animals. But no gimmick. No McGuffin. I guess the answer is to get my characters in motion and see what happens. I can go back and get rid of anything that does not fit into the final plot.

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I know it's a mistake to talk about a story I'm writing. I will talk the story out and not write it. And real writers write, they don't talk about writing, as we all know. However, I am finding the current one interesting, because I'm actually watching how I write. I've decided the noir version of the current story is not working, because it reminds me too much of a Lydia Duluth story, though Lydia Duluth stories are not noir. (Go figure.) In the past, I have given up on stories when they looked too familiar. This time (or yjos tome, as I just typed) I'm going to put the two attempts to begin this story off to the side for a few days. Maybe they will cross-fertilize, while I think of other things.

Yjos Tome is a great name for an alien. I need to remember it.