How much do you trust your writing instincts? I think I realized today that I don't trust mine enough and I'm just curious if it is me and an attitude I need to work on or something more universal to writers.
I started a chapter that I knew I needed, knew its purpose in the overall scheme of the book. I don't outline, so most of what I write is a surprise to me, but I generally know a direction I need to go on the onset of a new chapter. I hated writing it. Every second of it, I hated it. I complained about it here - oh how I hate this chapter, nothing is happening, now what? blah blah blah, whine whine whine - but I wrote it anyway, and surprisingly, it took shape, ended wonderfully, and something my brain (muse?) told me a month ago (about the girl in the trunk? there is no girl in the trunk!) suddenly came into play, and bam, chapter done, mission accomplished with the chapter, and a place to go from there.
So i suddenly thought, wow, if I would have just shut up and stopped whining I would have gotten there faster. if I would have just trusted the writer's instinct - where I thought nothing was happening was really a set up for some character developments by the end of the chapter I would have gotten there angst-free. How exactly do I start trusting myself? how did you? Do you trust yourself and/or muse?
I started a chapter that I knew I needed, knew its purpose in the overall scheme of the book. I don't outline, so most of what I write is a surprise to me, but I generally know a direction I need to go on the onset of a new chapter. I hated writing it. Every second of it, I hated it. I complained about it here - oh how I hate this chapter, nothing is happening, now what? blah blah blah, whine whine whine - but I wrote it anyway, and surprisingly, it took shape, ended wonderfully, and something my brain (muse?) told me a month ago (about the girl in the trunk? there is no girl in the trunk!) suddenly came into play, and bam, chapter done, mission accomplished with the chapter, and a place to go from there.
So i suddenly thought, wow, if I would have just shut up and stopped whining I would have gotten there faster. if I would have just trusted the writer's instinct - where I thought nothing was happening was really a set up for some character developments by the end of the chapter I would have gotten there angst-free. How exactly do I start trusting myself? how did you? Do you trust yourself and/or muse?