Creating Words
November 17, 2000
7:26 a.m.
Pain, pain, pain, pain.... I was out a bit later than normal last night, and not too surprisingly I struggled getting my tail out of bed this morning. Still, I did it. And I grumbled my way through my Chex squares breakfast and moaned while I began mainlining caffeine. When I got downstairs, I unloaded a satchel I had filled with old manuscripts and whatnot, then sat down to stare dumbly at the monitor. I had been out at a bookstore last night talking to a collection of new friends--and an old one [grin]. They are a collection of folks trying to find their way into the writing game. They were interested in seeing the process from idea generation to draft to revision to publication. Hence, the satchel of manuscripts. Hence questions. Hence my bumbling, stumbling answers. I did my best. Like all writers, they'll have to figure out what parts of my advice work for them and what parts don't. But I had a great time, and no one fell asleep. Many of their questions, however, were related to how to press through and write even when they weren't sure of what was coming out. I had answered them in several different ways, mostly being just different ways of saying "Don't worry, just do your best and everything will be fine." But this morning circumstances were reversed. I was the one that was tired. I was the one not in a good mood. And I was the one who did not feel very creative writing. "Just have fun," I reminded myself as I ground my teeth together. "No one has to see it," I thought as I contemplated destroying all my crappiest work (which may have left me with only two sentences I had written four years ago, but what the heck). "Just create words." This last got to me. So, I got to work. I decided I didn't want to get into analyzing the story I've been trying to finish for the past week because my brain just wasn't up to it. It's like that, you know? Sometimes I'm just not prepared to approach a story on its terms, and I just have to back off a bit. No problem. It will be there tomorrow, too. So I just dabbled. I created words. I talked about how I felt, and grabbed an image. The image became a character in a setting. Something interesting happened, and I realized he was observing something special. Was it a ghost? A mirage? Was it from his past? His future? What did it mean to him? I wrote a little about who he was. Next thing you know, it was time to quit. It's not a story. Not yet, anyway. It needs another element to drive some conflict somewhere. But now I've got this new character whispering in my thoughts. And I'm intensely interested in what he's going to find out, and what he's going to learn. I think it was a danged fine morning at the keyboard.   Have a great day.  Practice What You Preach Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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