That Insidious Predator

It hunts you down when you’re exhausted, powering through a first draft in search of the finish line. Or maybe when you’ve just settled in for a long night of revisions, it calls to you. It can strike as you try to fall asleep, or wake you up before your alarm goes off.

The Shiny New Idea.

Mine usually start with a situation, and then the attendant plot structure and necessary characters spin off of that. The function comes first. But I know plenty of people who find their characters first, their form for the book, and grow the plot out of that.

But how do you tackle that idea when it’s not yet time? When you’re caught up in your old love, or maybe multiple ones, and can’t make brainspace for whatever comes next?

If you’re a plotter, can you step outside of your current work long enough to get the outline down on paper? Or maybe you trust that if the idea is good enough, real enough, it’ll patiently sort itself out in the back of your mind so that once you have the time, it’ll be ready and waiting and all gussied up.

Or maybe you have to word-vomit anything and everything associated with the new idea before you can trust that it’ll stay put. When my new idea woke me up last weekend, I had to sit down, write out her first few paragraphs and a few bullet points, and then get on with my day. Otherwise my MC and her story would wander back into that jumble of isotopes in my head, never to collide and form a full-fledged atom again.

Whatever your method, I think we’ve all faced the dark fear of running out of ideas. I have a bullet point list of at least twenty books I want to write eventually, and I still fret about reaching the end of that list someday and having nowhere to go. Which is ridiculous, because it feels like each book I go through the writing and revising process with spawns at least ten more ideas, usually completely unrelated to the task at hand.

How do you tackle those shiny, sparkly plot-predators? Do you succumb to them, indulge them just long enough to keep them happy, or ignore them completely until the task at hand is done? Are you desperately in need of a new idea and fantasizing about smothering me with a pillow for daring to suggest that there are more ideas than hours in the day?

 

When It's Right NOT to Write

Ever since this morning I've been thinking about not writing.

Victoria and I were chatting on the metro this morning about writers. She said that it annoys her when people say that writing "looks fun" because it is one of the hardest, scariest things to do and one of the most difficult industries to break into. She said that she often tells people *not* to do it if they can avoid it. Why? Because it's hard. It's scary; it makes you a little crazy (or a lot crazy). Victoria said if someone can live happily without writing, then they should do it; they should spare themselves. I mentioned editing and how much I love doing it, because I do, but it is not and could not replace writing. If I had to choose, it wouldn't be a contest. 

There are good reasons not to write, if you can manage it. I have examples.

1) Writing can make you crazy. 

A few weeks ago, one of my character went crazy in my head. His story was done, and I was plotting this new story. Usually (always) characters from various stories get filed away into different parts of your brain so they don't disturb you. On this day someone complimented this character, and he was like that cricket in the room that you can hear, but you can't seem to find. (aka. constant noise!!) Anyway, he made a comment about the character in the story I was plotting—and I was shocked. Normally (always) they never interact, they never even acknowledge that there are other people around, but Character A was talking about how he was better than Character B. All day. In my head. Eventually, he stopped or I went to bed, and it was over. But it made for a very long day.

2) Writing is hard.

I've mentioned on here a few times that I spent two years on one book. Two years and SEVEN rewrites, like beginning-to-end-scrap-it--and-start-over rewrites. I knew the characters, I knew the story, but what I didn't know was the best way to tell the story. It was really BIG. Lots of world-building, many characters, so much happening. Most of those re-writes were all structure related. It was hard. Really, really hard. Two years, seven times. Hard. You get it right and then someone reads and tells you that you didn't get it right. It's a constant uphill battle.I'm actually diving into this for another revision, which isn't a total re-write but is a change to MANY of the threads throughout the book. So, again, it's hard. Writing is always hard. It's a lot of stress. A lot of tears. A lot of angst. It can be un-ending.

3) Writing is scary. 

Sometimes you get this story idea and you have to sit down so you can process it. For me, these are usually AWESOME but they are large, or different from the last thing, or something I feel like I can't pull off. Writing is scary. It's scary when you're plotting, when you're talking about it, when you're letting other people read your work. It's scary when you sub to agents, when you talk to people who are ahead of you about the things that they are doing/not doing/learning/questioning. Even when creating words isn't involved, writing is scary. It makes you doubt yourself; it can cause jealousy; it can make you feel like the world is happening and you are hanging on, trying not to fall apart. It's emotional, connecting with characters and stories and hopes and dreams. Writing is scary. I've experienced all of this. And then, once you overcome that, the whole publishing possibility is scary. Nothing is certain, and uncertainty is a difficult place to live.

I realize that all of this is sort of depressing, but if you're a writer then you KNOW it's true. We've all been there. Victoria was right. If someone asked me, "Should I be a writer?" this is what I would say. If you can not write, then don’t do it. If you have other things that make you happy, pursue those. Save yourself. But I'm telling you that--if you're reading this—and you feel a little sick, a little anxious, a little defensive, then you are probably one of those people who HAVE to write. 

Ever since this morning I've been thinking about not writing.

And I've felt really on edge since our conversation. It makes me nervous to think about myself in a place where I'm not creating my own words. Because yes, I am an editor—and I love that—but for me, that's not enough. I can't do only that and survive. I can't only work at this job, or talk to my friends, or take up other hobbies. For me, there is nothing else. I can't NOT write. 

Can you?

  

I Write...Therefore I am Crazy?

Writing can make you, well.....crazy. As if hearing voices inside our heads all day long isn't enough, there are plenty of other things about writing that can make us writerly types more than a little loco. Here's a (short) list of things that may make me a little crazy.

In the name of writing:

• I've skipped meals and/or eaten pita chips, grapes and a Clif bar throughout the entirety of a day in order to get the most writing done with the least amount of distraction;
• I've given up sleep--like enormous amounts of sleep that before I began writing I could have never imagined I could live without;
• I've fist bumped the air in excitement over a particular idea/line/scene/character;
• I've danced, like full-on cabbage patch (please tell me you know what that is), in excitement over a particular idea/line/scene/character;
• I've given up on TV shows that I once never missed a single episode of;
• I've allowed my children to watch *way* too much TV;
• I've gotten up at 3 a.m. to work on a scene that just won't leave me alone (yes, I know this is similar to giving up sleep, but waking up at that hour for any reason is just crazy in and of itself);
• I've started the four hour drive home from a writing retreat at 1 a.m. just so I didn't have to give up a single moment of writing time;
• I've cried, screamed, paced, erased, rewritten, and just generally freaked out at various points during the writing of a novel;
• And despite all that, I'm still doing it and LOVING it. 

How about you? What have you done that's crazy in the name of writing?