"I have done nothing with time."
I know I'm entering a funk because snatches of Jim Morrison poems keep coming to mind. Maybe it's the nearness of the "spring" semester (which won't seem silly to me in March, but sounds misleading while we're celebrating days when the temp goes up to 35 degrees F.); I had big plans for a revisions push during the break, but all I managed was one slip into a rabbit hole and many hours of staring at the screen.
A dear friend announced that I'd been at it too long and I should give the project to her to look over, and start something completely fresh. Brilliant idea! Er, in theory.
After handing it off and working on something brand spanking new...I was shocked to find that new sucked. Fascinating world, a half-baked character, and no plot to speak of. And the more I worked on the plot, the more it sucked. I didn't just spend a long time writing The Hidden, I spent a long time pre-writing. An idea--just a whisp of a thought--crossed my mind while I was doing dishes one night long, long ago. I recognized it as something worth persuing, so I dried off my hands, wrote it down, and then went back to doing dishes. It was months before a minor character in another (never to be finished) story said, "Hey, that's about me." And ever so many more months later, I understood him and what his story was about.
"To make works in the face of the void..."
If it takes me that long just thinking about it...
Why share this funk? Well, because it's my blog, and I can. Because I'm thinking of keeping a log like some messed up food diary, but instead of counting calories I'd count minutes, days, hours passed not writing. Because I want something to click while I'm typing. Something that will begin a great change and I will go from someone who has taken years to produce a not-really-done book to someone who creates several fabu works in a year. And because after I get this crap out of my system, I can move through it and get things done.
7 comments:
You'll get there. I have faith in you. Hang in there! And drop us a line when you need a hand. I think you know how to get in touch with me. PM on the OWG if nothing else.
It will pass...keep reading, keep thinking...you will get motivated, you will get writing again. It's in you...like it's in all of us...eventually the nagging will push your fingers to start typing again.
This happens to ALL of us. And it happens with almost every project. It's just part of the biz. Ideas that hit you like a freight train stall 1/3 of the way through the first draft. Ideas that come hard seem to flow more evenly. There must be a Murphy's Law for writers.
There's no set time when one "must" write. Sometimes there's a long - pre-writing process and you just have to put up with not being ready. I believe the time will come when you are are ready to write. Hang in there!
DianeG
Thank you, ladies, for the support.
I think it's crazy making because, just when I let it go, it doesn't let go of me. I'm all bits of conversation and flashes of action without context. Maybe I should be happy that the voices in my head saying, "Wait, there's a story here!" instead of something else. ;-D
As others have said, you will get there, however I tried writing an idea that wasn't worked out too well and as such I got not only stuck but started to hate the project.
So I put it to one side and I'll start again shortly when I've done more world building and plot comprehension. That way it should flow as I feel I spent so long developing the characters the deserve the best chance I can give them.
Keep plugging away and it will happen but sometimes with writing, as with cooking, things work out much better on a lower, longer bake than on a higher fast one.
Post a Comment