The Circles of Thought

Made it through another night. Every time I almost fell asleep, thoughts would intrude and take me someplace else. Then I'm spinning and worrying and wondering if I can wear them down by letting them run on. Sooner or later they're bound to give out. There's only so much that sustains the thoughts so let then run and they will wear themselves out. Well, not quite that way. I turned and turned and they won eventually and it was morning.

Never mind, let's get on with the day. Once again I'm stalled on the story I started. For the past few days I've been reading about story structure and character arcs. Haven't finished with either of them and when I think I have something on them, poof, something else knocks it out of my head and I'm left staring at the keyboard again.

So after what I've read I've been reconsidering the protagonist in the story about the boxmaker and I realize he has no inner lie or whatever. He has no problem he deals with and so nowhere to go as a person. Nowhere for the story to go unless I introduce something that makes the story turn. Otherwise, we're looking at his neat little life on Puzzlewood. Of course, I haven't gone far enough there either.

Where are his parents? His brothers and sister? There is not enough story there to continue. I need to work kit out more. But of course, that means I need to understand what it is I'm working out. Which takes me back to read about story structure and arcs. So it seems I'm stuck in this loop until I finish it. But everyday I don't write it feels further away. Like it's slipping away from me and I need to chase it. Soon I'll be content to eat breakfast and then watch youtube videos and cat memes all day.

So how do I do this? I need to understand story structure but I'm worried that it's all an opinion so the fundamentals of story structure change depending on who you read. I want it to stand still and have a single shape. So where can I find out about story structure? That's the question.

More later,