Obsession
January 22, 2001
7:19 a.m.
We were eating dinner last night at a restaurant. Waiting for our food. "So, you wrote a short story this weekend?" Lisa said. I gave a chagrined expression, knowing where this was going. "Yep." "Aren't you supposed to be working on a novel?" "Well, yeah," I replied. "But at this rate, I'll have to work on a lot more novels. Since I started this one, I've written two and a half short stories, and I've got ideas for a couple more. Heck, my short story productivity has skyrocketed." Lisa smiled. Later in the conversation: "I was joking back there about the novel thing," Lisa said. "I know." We went on to talk about a bunch of writing stuff, and about how writers all write differently. And I hit upon a different perspective. "I don't think it's that we really work that differently. I think it's all in a matter of what we obsess about. And we all obsess differently," I said. And I think there is truth in here somewhere. I had lunch with Charles Eckert this past Friday. Charles is a meticulous writer (by his own definition). He obsesses about the words. They must be specific words, and they must move the plotline forward in a specific way or he's not comfortable. When things are going well, he writes passage after passage of glittering prose. When he worries about them too much, he gets stuck and can't write. I generally obsess with whether I'm working hard enough. Am I dealing with the business end too much, not enough? I worry about balance. I worry about marketability. I worry about whether I'm fooling myself t think I've got a possible career in the field. When things are going well, the entire pipeline flows and wonderful things happen. When I obsess too much about the back end, I lose motivation on the front end, and while I can still write, I convince myself that the stuff coming out is garbage. So I think I'm on to something here. I looked at Lisa as we ate. "I know you were only joking, but I think there's something important there. I feel real comfortable with myself right now. I'm coming along with the book, and letting it happen as it will. And I have every confidence that I'm going to get it done. So when I get these ideas, I'm finding it very easy to let myself take the time to do them." Lisa nodded. "That's good." "Yeah, it is." And we moved on to talk about something else.   The weekend could have been more productive, I suppose--but looking back on it, I can't complain. As I commented on above, I sat down late Saturday, and banged out a 5,000+ word short story draft. Then looked at it again yesterday and made a few changes. I think it's pretty ok, but then, I'm the author. What the heck do I know? Got back to the novel this morning. The final plot points feel into place for the first half of the book--now I'm searching for an appropriate incident to fit the scenarios I've come up with. And I managed about 7-800 words that I like a bit. So, how can I complain about that, eh? So, what do you obsess about?  And here we thought it was going to be an entry on perfume or something Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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The preliminary Nebula Award® ballot was formally released this weekend. [insert cheesy grin here] |
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