My friend, Jay Hudson, is persistent:
“Don't start anything new. Finish one you already have started.”
He's talking about novels. I do have a lot started, but nothing
finished. It's so easy to say, “Just finish one.” But there is
this huge blind spot in my way. I don't know how to get around it.
Then I think, “You get around it by
sitting at that desk and doing what has to be done: Writing.
But what if it's no good? The writing.
What if it's no good? What if it sounds stupid and immature...or
worse?
THAT'S what revisions are for...maybe.
Jay and I were talking about romance
writing. He said he could do it. I said maybe he should do it and
show me how it's done. He laughed. But he's in a similar place. He
wants his story to be perfect the first time he sets it down on
paper. And it's unlikely that it will be perfect. Oh, parts of it may
be, but not the whole thing. That's where the cutting of paragraphs
and sentences and words comes in. Or moving things around.
The draft
is getting A story down on paper. The actual work is done in
revisions. That's where we flesh out the story, build the characters,
develop the protagonist and antagonist. That is where the whole story
comes together. Sounds so easy, doesn't it? I'm sure non-writers
think so, “Because you're a writer.”
Writing is hard work for the brain,
every bit as exhausting (mentally) as physical labor. And
even though it does not show a paycheck when you are doing it, it IS
time consuming work that family just doesn't appreciate. They say, “I
know you can do this!” but their actions say, “You aren't
bringing in any money so you have all kinds of time to do the things
that need taken care of around the house.” Or worse, “I gave up
on your writing a long time ago. You're never going to go anywhere
with that.”
And sometimes you might begin to
believe that “they” might be right and in a state of
discouragement you set your writing aside as useless. Maybe they are
right. Maybe you will never be anything more than what you are at
this moment. “A writer. I am a writer. Now at this moment, long
into the past and forever into the future.” And what do writers do?
They write.
What are we waiting for?
1 comment:
One thing that has helped me to start and finish my stories is to see them from the end. I learned this from a book i read by Wayne Dyer. I make a book jacket for the WIP and I keep it where I can see it while I write. I wrap that book jacket around a real hardback book and it helps me to see it. The book jacket is my daily affirmation that I can be the writer I see myself being.
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