I don't care how much of a Beatles fan you are or aren't. You need to watch this. I guarantee you'll never think of waffle fries the same way again.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Writer's Boredom
I love writing. I live to write, really. I could give a crap about earning a living, honestly. I loved being in college and having reason to read and an excuse to spend hours frittered away in front of my computer at home or in a notebook in the student center.
I could write all day every day, and writer's block isn't really a problem for me. I count myself blessed in that respect because the one or two times I did really honestly have it, I was going insane.
If you cared to torture me, send me to a personal hell-- tell me I can't write. The whole reason I think I did bang out that 350-page tome was because I was denied any form of joy at my particular place of employment*. I would get home, feed my husband**, and sit down with the laptop and bang out 10 pages a night.
Remember though how I said previously: my story need room to mature in my brain.
That's when I get something I call Writer's Boredom.
I hit a point in a story, and I know what has to happen. It's the part that's not fun to write. The background. Pure non-action exposition. Nothing that compels the story to go forward. Nothing that makes me want to write it anymore.
So, I sit and reread what I've written. Time after time, thinking about all the fun action that I have in store for the characters, if only I could get through this boring bit.
Example: right now, I'm working on an origin story for some of my characters. Good stories need good plot lines, and I have one. But the background for the conflict is exposition. It's getting the character set up for the fall. Digging himself in deep to create the right tension in the story.
But I don'wanna! I wanna just write the rest of it! *wah*
Here I am, stuck in Writer's Boredom land. Each time I reread I might another line or paragraph out of myself and get that much closer to the 'fun' parts again. But for now, it's like Groundhog Day in here.
_____________________________________
* No, 'joy' is not an exaggeration. We had no internet, save intranet and the Weather Channel online. We weren't allowed to do anything at all but work. Using your phone to call your spouse was frowned upon. If you left your desk to tell someone something, even work related, you'd better have a paper in your hand. Personalization of workspace had to be handled properly. You could get in big trouble for even trying to do something else while you were waiting for the crap computers to load anything. No texting, no dressing up, no dressing down. Just show up and work for 8 hours. No, you didn't even officially get your 2 20 minute breaks in the place because we were salaried and not obligated to stay at our "post" the whole time. Which was also a lie... but enough about that hell...
**Feed = the man was living on Taylor Ham, hamburgers and steak sandwiches for 10 weeks.
I could write all day every day, and writer's block isn't really a problem for me. I count myself blessed in that respect because the one or two times I did really honestly have it, I was going insane.
If you cared to torture me, send me to a personal hell-- tell me I can't write. The whole reason I think I did bang out that 350-page tome was because I was denied any form of joy at my particular place of employment*. I would get home, feed my husband**, and sit down with the laptop and bang out 10 pages a night.
Remember though how I said previously: my story need room to mature in my brain.
That's when I get something I call Writer's Boredom.
I hit a point in a story, and I know what has to happen. It's the part that's not fun to write. The background. Pure non-action exposition. Nothing that compels the story to go forward. Nothing that makes me want to write it anymore.
So, I sit and reread what I've written. Time after time, thinking about all the fun action that I have in store for the characters, if only I could get through this boring bit.
Example: right now, I'm working on an origin story for some of my characters. Good stories need good plot lines, and I have one. But the background for the conflict is exposition. It's getting the character set up for the fall. Digging himself in deep to create the right tension in the story.
But I don'wanna! I wanna just write the rest of it! *wah*
Here I am, stuck in Writer's Boredom land. Each time I reread I might another line or paragraph out of myself and get that much closer to the 'fun' parts again. But for now, it's like Groundhog Day in here.
_____________________________________
* No, 'joy' is not an exaggeration. We had no internet, save intranet and the Weather Channel online. We weren't allowed to do anything at all but work. Using your phone to call your spouse was frowned upon. If you left your desk to tell someone something, even work related, you'd better have a paper in your hand. Personalization of workspace had to be handled properly. You could get in big trouble for even trying to do something else while you were waiting for the crap computers to load anything. No texting, no dressing up, no dressing down. Just show up and work for 8 hours. No, you didn't even officially get your 2 20 minute breaks in the place because we were salaried and not obligated to stay at our "post" the whole time. Which was also a lie... but enough about that hell...
**Feed = the man was living on Taylor Ham, hamburgers and steak sandwiches for 10 weeks.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Let's Begin with a Failure.
Once upon a time, (like Sept. 13th, 2010) I signed up for the NaNoWriMo Challenge. Having banged out a 350-pager in 10 weeks earlier this year, I really thought that is would be nothing.
Mistake number one: I was bored waiting for Nov. 1st.
~I decided to tinker around with an old story that needed a ground-up rewrite/overhaul. When the story involves some of your most favorite, most complex characters, that's not a good idea.
Mistake number two: not putting said story to the side on November 1st.
~I simply couldn't. In the course of 10 days, I was able to put together nearly 100 pages of story. And I was having fun! This was a chance to re-imagine the beginning of some my most pivotal characters.
Mistake number three: thinking that forcing out a story in 30 days no matter what was a good idea.
~I've been writing a really long time. Like, an insanely long time. My first "story" was written when I was 7 years old. It was 13 pages long called "Telephone Terror"* and that was beginning of the end. I know how I work. I can write a few stories at a time, and then one will leap to the forefront and it takes off in my mind. But it could have been sitting and fermenting for years, years, before I get to that point. As was the case with the story up ^ there. Thinking that I could sit down and force out 50,000 words, 175 pages in 30 days no matter what was absolute fallacy.
I did get 15,000 words out, about 40 pages in 10 days or so, when I hit that point. You know, that point where you just don't know what needs to happen next to get your main character where they need to be.
Now, the idea of NaNo is to plow through this point. Plow through your character flaws and plot holes. Just Write, is the motto here. It's tag line is "30 days and 30 nights of literary abandon" and they mean it. Write. Just keep pushing through.
The problem with this is, if you went to high school or college, all of sudden it starts to feel like a term paper. A big fat boring term paper. It's not *fun* or *creative* at this point. It's drudgery. It's washing the clothes. It's vacuuming the living room. It's not fun, it's something you have to do.
Writing, real writing that is inspired by the passion for the written word, for the story, for the characters, should not feel like you're washing your underthings. It should compel you to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, though I will never surrender my pen!) and create-- people, places, worlds, thoughts, deeds, stories, backgrounds, adventures, heartbreaks, births, deaths, and every little thing in between. In the back of your mind, no matter what you're doing, there's a little typewriter going, a Quick Quotes Quill**, jotting down ideas that flash through your brain through the day.
And word count? never matters. Whether you've written 100 words or 10,000 in a day, a week, doesn't matter to you. You're creating, you're not on a deadline. It's about the story. It's always about the story. Doing chores is something you have to do only because you don't want a thick layer of dust on yourself, or flies in the house. It's all about getting to that next chance to write and lose yourself in the world you're creating.
NaNo, while an admirable idea for those who have had "At the Speed of Love" in their head for years and want to get out, is not necessarily good for all writers. my story has gone back it's box. It will rest and relax and in the back of my brain, I will continue working on it. Perhaps next year I will be in the right place to finish. Or perhaps next decade. You just don't know.
I started with a failure. Is it really a failure, though? I may not have the pretty purple bar on my website, but I came away with something even more important: I understand my craft better. I understand my motivations and motivators. I know that writing to a deadline is a term paper; writing to write is a creative process. I can't force down on paper what isn't there, what isn't crafted.
That is worth more to me than any little purple "winner" bar anywhere.
______________________
*When I found a few years ago, it lived up to that moniker. *weeping*
**Quick Quotes Quill, dear blog reader. Prepare yourself for reference like this one.
Mistake number one: I was bored waiting for Nov. 1st.
~I decided to tinker around with an old story that needed a ground-up rewrite/overhaul. When the story involves some of your most favorite, most complex characters, that's not a good idea.
Mistake number two: not putting said story to the side on November 1st.
~I simply couldn't. In the course of 10 days, I was able to put together nearly 100 pages of story. And I was having fun! This was a chance to re-imagine the beginning of some my most pivotal characters.
Mistake number three: thinking that forcing out a story in 30 days no matter what was a good idea.
~I've been writing a really long time. Like, an insanely long time. My first "story" was written when I was 7 years old. It was 13 pages long called "Telephone Terror"* and that was beginning of the end. I know how I work. I can write a few stories at a time, and then one will leap to the forefront and it takes off in my mind. But it could have been sitting and fermenting for years, years, before I get to that point. As was the case with the story up ^ there. Thinking that I could sit down and force out 50,000 words, 175 pages in 30 days no matter what was absolute fallacy.
I did get 15,000 words out, about 40 pages in 10 days or so, when I hit that point. You know, that point where you just don't know what needs to happen next to get your main character where they need to be.
Now, the idea of NaNo is to plow through this point. Plow through your character flaws and plot holes. Just Write, is the motto here. It's tag line is "30 days and 30 nights of literary abandon" and they mean it. Write. Just keep pushing through.
The problem with this is, if you went to high school or college, all of sudden it starts to feel like a term paper. A big fat boring term paper. It's not *fun* or *creative* at this point. It's drudgery. It's washing the clothes. It's vacuuming the living room. It's not fun, it's something you have to do.
Writing, real writing that is inspired by the passion for the written word, for the story, for the characters, should not feel like you're washing your underthings. It should compel you to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, though I will never surrender my pen!) and create-- people, places, worlds, thoughts, deeds, stories, backgrounds, adventures, heartbreaks, births, deaths, and every little thing in between. In the back of your mind, no matter what you're doing, there's a little typewriter going, a Quick Quotes Quill**, jotting down ideas that flash through your brain through the day.
And word count? never matters. Whether you've written 100 words or 10,000 in a day, a week, doesn't matter to you. You're creating, you're not on a deadline. It's about the story. It's always about the story. Doing chores is something you have to do only because you don't want a thick layer of dust on yourself, or flies in the house. It's all about getting to that next chance to write and lose yourself in the world you're creating.
NaNo, while an admirable idea for those who have had "At the Speed of Love" in their head for years and want to get out, is not necessarily good for all writers. my story has gone back it's box. It will rest and relax and in the back of my brain, I will continue working on it. Perhaps next year I will be in the right place to finish. Or perhaps next decade. You just don't know.
I started with a failure. Is it really a failure, though? I may not have the pretty purple bar on my website, but I came away with something even more important: I understand my craft better. I understand my motivations and motivators. I know that writing to a deadline is a term paper; writing to write is a creative process. I can't force down on paper what isn't there, what isn't crafted.
That is worth more to me than any little purple "winner" bar anywhere.
______________________
*When I found a few years ago, it lived up to that moniker. *weeping*
**Quick Quotes Quill, dear blog reader. Prepare yourself for reference like this one.
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