Dark Matters

Quite often, the subjects I write about here are the ones on my mind as I sit down to write my post. I kind of like it that way; it really proves that we always have one new thing we can talk about every day. But the key word there is "new".

If I ever cover a concept multiple times, I am approaching it from new angles and with new perspectives. I do not write about the same subject over and over again. But that doesn't mean that I don't have the same thoughts over and over again.

During the shower I took just before writing this post, I came up with three well-formed ideas to write on. When I sat down, they were all gone. After some thinking, I remembered one of them (my knack for holding onto critical phrases is improving, but leaves much to be desired).

If I wrote about "forgetting ideas" every time I sat down and realized that I had forgotten the idea I was planning to write about, that would be a good chunk of my posts. Along with that, I would become stale and annoying rather quickly.

But the point remains: it happens to me. It happens often. It is usually on my mind. Despite that, I rarely talk about it. As a writer, I communicate things that matter. That largely means that you don't repeat yourself. You only bring up old matters when you have something significant to add to them.

Because of that, so many thoughts are like dark matter: they exist and they affect us and the things around us, but light does not get shined upon them. This is a tricky aspect to tackle when you write. It is important to understand what is going on in people's heads. If they act and we don't know why, we can't relate. Then we will be confused and will reject that character. But if we keep getting the same descriptions and the same thoughts, we will get bored and angry and again will reject the character.

The best advice I have is to develop with a theme. A neat freak who only ever freaks out about things "being dirty" is boring. But imagine how many different ways that person's sense of order can be shattered. Talk about the specifics. Come up with creative ways to make things chaotic. Now you will be able to cover the same thoughts and issues, but keep them new and interesting.

It occurs to me that this advice is the same as the one I mentioned with my blog posts: approach it from a new angle. Bring new light to the subject. As long as it's truly different, it remains worthwhile.