Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
This exchange was profoundly validating to me. I chase my characters and grind my molars, dismayed by where they’re going, reluctant to accept their direction, and upset because I’m again proven not to be in charge. Finding I’m in good company comforts me a little, like an amuse-bouche comforts me when I’m really hungry for pizza.
I enjoyed their conversation, so here’s a link, so you can read it, too.
I did the same thing that Scott said, buying Writer’s Digest and books on fiction writing, looking for the secrets before realizing, just read and write. It wasn’t wasted time or effort, though, because I glimpsed other writers’ processes and developed my processes and voice from thinking about what they’d done, trying to do the same, and then adjusting.
This is the essence of writing like crazy to me. Dive in and start writing, and hopefully, it’ll stick.
I like discovering quotes like these. It helps alleviate the worries I have about the lack of control over what I write — something which seems inherently wrong to write, but most writers will readily grasp.
This is an almost perfect analogy for novel writing for me. I know I’m crossing the valley. I have no idea how to do it, so I see a tree and I head for it.
Ever read a news article that excites your writey senses and muses, a feeling that, “OMG, there’s a book that I want to write!”
That’s the writey sense, that internal mass that stays on alert to concepts, characters, settings, and ideas, looking for the next story or novel.
Just happened to me. I read a news article about a man who killed himself during a traffic stop. The police found a woman’s body in the trunk. I immediately flashed onto a title, “The Woman in the Trunk”. My inner writers and muses began marshaling scenes, including opening lines. I could feel the writing energy developing.
Despite the excitement (and the anxiety, what if I’m blowing off a great novel?), I had to tell them, sorry, not today. We’re doing other things, such as editing novels that are already in progress.
They weren’t happy.
Michael Seidel, writer 