Writer-In-Progress

I once heard (or maybe read…it all blends together after a while) that it’s important for writers to get the story pieces & parts out of their heads and on paper, no matter how small or inconsequential or irrelevant we think they are at the time because when we get rid of the stuff running circles (think mouse on a treadmill) in our minds, we free up all that creative space for the really good stuff to come hit us. If we’re still thinking about the old stuff, the new stuff doesn’t have anywhere to plop in.

I didn’t really buy this at the time because I’m a mental “chewer”. Depending on the issue, idea or thought I get (not necessarily just from writing), it can literally be weeks that the same idea is floating around my brain for me to “chew” on during those quiet times. This is how I’ve often worked on stories in the past…just let it keep floating and fermenting.

But writing now the way I’ve written in the past isn’t working, so I decided to give this a try. I’ve got the notebook with me everywhere and every time something strikes me about the story I jot it down (or scribe it into the Palm for later use).

Talk about a flood of stuff coming out (yeah, I know I’m a writer and should use more description than “stuff” but it’s working for me). Every day –literally– something new is showing up in the brain radar about the story. Enough to keep me excited and focused on the multiple plotlines. In weird ways, I’m also sort of discovering solutions to problems I anticipated in the story. Like..as long as my brain keeps firing across those synaptic connections (Doc, that one is for YOU…lol), the story will solve itself.

Now, if I could just get it to WRITE itself I’d be rich…

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The new goal of writing every day is finding me writing in some interesting places. Today I worked on internal motivation of my heroine at the doctor’s office and the external plot of my hero while working the desk at the yoga studio.

Even cooler, most of the really good breakthrough ideas came at the yoga studio desk. Maybe I should write there every day….

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What is it about writing longhand that helps me think through my story at a deeper level than typing on the PC?

It’s almost like my story (only two pages old) took a massive twist down a different highway when I was too lazy to come get my laptop last night to write and instead wrote in my fave notebook. Scrawled out several pages, and when I opened it today to write (which includes reading over the previous day’s work), I was struck with how different the story now feels (in a better, deeper way) than it did on the laptop.

I wonder if we use different parts of the brain (and different kinds of creativity) when we write with different modalities (handwritten vs. typed). I’d be curious to see if other writers think this happens too or if I’m just floating around in Bethieworld again…

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I know I’ve been away …from blogging…from writing…for a while, but I haven’t been *that* far away. Physically, maybe, but not mentally.

Fiction writers will understand why. I’ve been battling the idea of a particular story for about two years. Maybe longer, but a solid two years I can say with certainty. The idea has hounded me off and on, through fiction stories and nonfiction assignments, through my thesis and monthly columns for different publications…in my sleep, in my waking hours…on vacations and in the shower….

Ok, you get the point. I’ve just been waiting this long for that perfect first line, that opener that will never, ever need changed and will light the way for the rest of my story. No, I’m not on drugs…I’m a perfectionistic writers and can’t stand the thought of starting and restarting.

Til now. I started the story today. I’ve plugged out two pages of decent stuff but am still missing the hero’s external journey and the mystery to keep the reader reading (never written anything with a mystery/suspense element before…that’s scary!) but I’ve done enough character mapping, brainstorming and outlining to write, well, a book, and these two pages feel satisfying at the same time they feel tenunous. Most important, they’re in the light of day so there’s no going back…

Who knew two pages could be so scary?!

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