you start obsessing over something and you want to talk
about it all day but can’t because other people don’t understand.
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| thatfunnyblog.tumblr.com |
Today is supposed to be about craft--and for some reason not only does this (as well as the whole blog I took it from) crack me up--but it also seems to be VERY plausibly about craft.
What is craft? Craft is:
1. Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency.
2. An occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or skilled artistry. b. The membership of such an occupation or trade; guild.
3. To make by hand.
4. To make or construct (something) in a manner suggesting great care or ingenuity.
Everyone here is presumably "a writer" and thus one who determines, develops, and crafts a world, a character, a plot. As such, we are obsessive! We get lost in the world. We know it. We can smell it, taste the air, walk on the ground. We feel what our characters feel, think and wonder as they do, worry and fight. We are consumed by our craft. (And I think that's how it should be.)
The problem with it is that not everyone else--if anyone--is in that world with us. They don't care (to an extent) what's going on there or what your character ate for breakfast (scrambled eggs) or how that breakfast is really foreshadowing something that happens later (day where everything is messed up and shattered into pieces!) People who aren't writers don't usually understand what goes on in our heads. They can't if they aren't consumed by this intense world and lives of all these other people that have to survive and thrive alongside your own.
Which brings me back to the opening of this post: When we are obsessing, when we love something, we want to talk about it all day long! (Like me with Doctor Who.) and sometimes, we can't do that because the people in our lives don't understand.
So what now?
How do you balance the obsession of your fictional world with the reality of your life? Are there people you can turn to that share the obsession? Do you have a group of writers (and/or readers) that you can pour all these things out to? How do you develop and balance all the things so you don't get completely lost?
Oh my gosh! This is so me! Loved this post. I may post a link to it from my blog. melindawriter.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI do actually obsess over so many things and few people understand what I'm talking about. They usually look at me with those big scared eyes while i talk about how X character develops in the shadow of Y and in the end we can see so clearly that X is mature etc, and all they hear is "blah blah blah blaah blah more blah blah" and I sigh and say " oh, sorry, forgot you're not into books/writing/ techniques etc"
ReplyDeleteThere are 2 people I can talk about books I love and basically none to talk about writing ( except if you count my sister but when I start rambling her face looks like she wants lightening to strike and stop me from saying another word) so, yeah, those awkward moments, I know them well...