Ender’s Game author Orson Scott Card has a new book called The Lost Gate. He talks about its origin in an article, Mapping Worlds in The Lost Gate, in the January TOR newsletter.

What hit home for me was Card’s willingness to hang with the story idea no matter how long it took him to flesh it out. In this case thirty years. Of course he’s written other books, successful books, while he gave himself permission to dream, create, ‘map’, and finally write the book he wanted in the world he wanted to create it. This article made me happy.

As a young writer (in terms of years writing fiction, not my age:) and as of now, an unpublished writer, believing in my choices is as challenging as polishing the 85,000 plus words of my current WIP.

I hit a wall with the book (writer’s block some call it – I prefer to say no-story-in-the-middle:). I read somewhere that a way to get back on track is to start another project to get the creative juices flowing, and yeah, good thought. Well, I have a new idea and I’m very excited about it and the research I’m doing to help me build the world. But as mentioned, the new project or the soon-to-be-WIP-in-waiting is also an opportunity to fix the current WIP.  And the plan is working. 

So, I’m in world building mode and comfortable staying digging until I know this new world, understand how it works, why it works, and learn all I can about the ‘science’ I can use to shape a believable, but fictional, environment in which to tell this story. That’s the deal with the new WIP.  This is also the step I didn’t take with the current WIP – so I’m doing a little of that, but mostly, making choices about what’s good, what’s bad, what’s surprising, what’s not. 

So what’s my point for today’s blog – as the title says – give yourself permission to create. Break the rules, change the game, go as far as you want to go and beyond. That first idea as crazy as it may feel, you should play with, and if you fall in love with a story, it might be because it’s a good one, and worth the work and the wait.

Special Note: You’ll see on his website that Mr. Card suffered a mild stroke on January 1, 2011 – here’s wishing him a speedy recovery.