How we write.

Michael Myers said:

I should point out that I also have a sizeable box full of crap, the pages of which are only worth the heat of their combustion. Maybe 10 novel-sized manuscripts in size, but certainly not structure.

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Haha! I hear you. If I'd kept everything I'd written over the years, I'm sure I could fill a small room with it. And honestly, some of it probably wasn't half bad, but it's too late now. I like to think that everything we write plays some role in the story we finally get onto the page and out into the world. Of course, that's coming from someone who has never finished any of the projects I've started. To give you an idea, I was just reading a blog about writing, and the blogger linked to a book from which she got her outlining method. When I clicked on the link, it took me to the Amazon page, and lo and behold, I'd already bought the book....SEVEN YEARS AGO. That was kind of freaky. To realize that seven years ago I was doing exactly what I am now. I honestly don't remember purchasing the book, but thanks to the magic of the Kindle cloud, I was able to open it up and start reading. It's amazingly insightful. I'm actually at a point with my current project that the information in the book is helpful! With any luck, seven years from NOW I'll actually have a finished book...a published one if I'm really lucky!

But, I wanted you to know that I did a brain dump this morning. It was like beating my head against a wall at first, and none of the lovely imagery and such that you have in yours. What it did do was unlock some information about my MC, and the plot unfolded a great deal more because of that. I feel like something shook loose and fell into place. So...yay! Thanks for the inspiration/motivation to do that!

I'd seen an interview with J.K. Rowling a while back and I believe she said something along the lines that the characters spoke to her and told her what to write. That's how she was able to pen so many novels. Almost as a psychic or medium between the imagined world and this reimagined one. When write I may have ideas in mind, but that more often than that isn't what results. When it comes to creation who is it that controls the process, primarily.

I love this quote: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” Michelangelo said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

I write from a combination of things - a kind of 'mental ear' feel for the flow of the words, a sense of how a given word will 'paint a picture' in a reader's mind, and then the struggle to understand what to write. Sometimes I let those first two go just to get an idea out of my head. The more I focus on the story-now, and consider only what has happened up till now - the easier it is for me to capture 'now'. But sometimes the most I can manage in a day is 1/4 page. For me the hardest part of writing a story is figuring out how to learn from the initial spark (that is - the idea I get of person in a situation) what the actual story is inside. By that I mean: what are the events that make up the story. For me writing those events is the way to see the 'person-ness' of the character(s).

ETA: I'm currently writing a scene where I have a lot of ideas about what the story needs to be. I'm really feeling the challenge of relaxing and focusing on what's unfolding between the two characters, these two people in the scene. What would be normal for two such people as they in these circumstances? What would be natural for each of these two who bring their own agendas to the situation. It's particularly hard since one of the characters is new and 'inchoate' - still kind of vague and half developed in all but a few aspects.