Sometimes I sits and I thinks...
Jul. 17th, 2008 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
megwritesSince I'm in Florida right now visiting family, friends, and my dog, I'm sort of on a break from the rewrites. And this time around, I didn't do any work in the airport/airplane, either.
Why?
Because I'm wondering if my instincts to stop work and make progress on another story aren't just the usual mid-novel distractions. I'm wondering if it's more than that.
There's a part of me that still doesn't think I have a real, true grasp on what the core of the Tower!Guy story is. I think it's what![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lagringa meant when she said that the story needed shaping. I'm not sure how to define "core", except that it's the thing you can point to and say, "This is the story's soul, this is why it has to be told, this is the thing I needed all those words to express to you."
I have plot, setting, characters, conflict. All the fixings. I just can't help but looking at it and going, "Where's the beef?"
Meanwhile, I have other stories who's core, who's intangable essence I have a much clearer sense of. Sure, they need just as much work, and I'm likely to get just as distracted if I went to work on them, but I feel like I know their shape, their soul. Why yes, I am referring to the never-say-die RBverse!story that refuses to go away when I say, "Not now!"
There's a part of me wondering if there is a point at which you abandon ship (or at least shelve ship) and know that the story just isn't fully cooked yet, that the dough hasn't risen, the crust is not golden brown, (insert cooking metaphor here).
At the same time, I swore up and down to myself that I would not stop, that I would not change horses mid stream. I told myself that I was riding this one all the way to finish line, come hell or high water.
What if me being stubborn is actually keeping me from telling a better story? What if I'm wasting time trying to keep promises to myself, meanwhile the story I should be telling (the story that might just get somewhere) isn't getting told?
Of course, what if this is the story? Writing is like this. It's full of doubts and anxieties and pebbles in your shoes. Maybe this is just the annoying grain of sand that becomes a pearl, but right now the oyster is indecisive.
Being an indecisive oyster sucks. Much better to be decisive if you're a bivalve mollusk. Or a writer. Essentially, we sort of do the same thing. We get irritated by some little particle of something, we add a whole bunch of layers to it for a long time, spit it out, and then people decide whether it's pretty or not.
I suspect oysters may have a higher success rate, though.
Why?
Because I'm wondering if my instincts to stop work and make progress on another story aren't just the usual mid-novel distractions. I'm wondering if it's more than that.
There's a part of me that still doesn't think I have a real, true grasp on what the core of the Tower!Guy story is. I think it's what
lagringa meant when she said that the story needed shaping. I'm not sure how to define "core", except that it's the thing you can point to and say, "This is the story's soul, this is why it has to be told, this is the thing I needed all those words to express to you."I have plot, setting, characters, conflict. All the fixings. I just can't help but looking at it and going, "Where's the beef?"
Meanwhile, I have other stories who's core, who's intangable essence I have a much clearer sense of. Sure, they need just as much work, and I'm likely to get just as distracted if I went to work on them, but I feel like I know their shape, their soul. Why yes, I am referring to the never-say-die RBverse!story that refuses to go away when I say, "Not now!"
There's a part of me wondering if there is a point at which you abandon ship (or at least shelve ship) and know that the story just isn't fully cooked yet, that the dough hasn't risen, the crust is not golden brown, (insert cooking metaphor here).
At the same time, I swore up and down to myself that I would not stop, that I would not change horses mid stream. I told myself that I was riding this one all the way to finish line, come hell or high water.
What if me being stubborn is actually keeping me from telling a better story? What if I'm wasting time trying to keep promises to myself, meanwhile the story I should be telling (the story that might just get somewhere) isn't getting told?
Of course, what if this is the story? Writing is like this. It's full of doubts and anxieties and pebbles in your shoes. Maybe this is just the annoying grain of sand that becomes a pearl, but right now the oyster is indecisive.
Being an indecisive oyster sucks. Much better to be decisive if you're a bivalve mollusk. Or a writer. Essentially, we sort of do the same thing. We get irritated by some little particle of something, we add a whole bunch of layers to it for a long time, spit it out, and then people decide whether it's pretty or not.
I suspect oysters may have a higher success rate, though.
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Date: 2008-07-17 11:54 pm (UTC)Ohhhh, this says exactly how I've been feeling lately. I do think being indecisive can be good, if it leads you to probe for more options or better solutions. The core, for me, usually comes from my main character and/or his/her environment. Either way, I'm sure you'll work through it!