Why do we make it so hard?

[wgjones3]

You know, I've spent the last three hours reading over the first draft of my current manuscript. I got about 100 pages in (in between phone calls and lunch and a few laps on a simulated racetrack to blow out the cobwebs ;) ). I wonder, why do we make this so difficult? Why don't we just thow down the first thing that comes to mind and move on?

About half of my manuscript was written that way. The rest came after I started thinking about where I wanted the story to go. Hmmm. Maybe that's my problem. I need to quit thinking. :eek:

[Mr. Otis]

Agreed. My best stuff, in terms of the bones of the stories, comes when I quit finding other things to do and just start writing.

[dctilak]

William,
So true.

How do the great writers have so much discipline? I was reading a book of writers' interviews/bios and every writer seems to have such a rigorous schedule of many hours a day. But somehow, I don't can't seem to even imagine how I can find time for doing so much writing in a day.

[wgjones3]

I was reading Stephen King's book on writing (the part that was actually about writing, anyway), and he talked in it about blocking out the first three or four hours of the day to write, to keep writing until you hit 2000 words even if it takes longer than three or four hours.

I usually write at night, but on Thursday, I had a pretty clean slate for the first half of the day, so I got up, started writing, and I'd knocked out a little over 2000 words in about an hour. The problem was, once I hit that point, my brain just said enough--I guess because subconciously I'd made that a goal for the day.

Personally, I've never kept to a rigerous schedule, and I doubt I ever will. I may never be truly successful, either, but that won't stop me from trying. To me, it's more important to write when your brain is working right and the story is flickering in your mind and the words don't have to be hunted down, shot, and dragged back to the keyboard.

[dctilak]

Hey William,
That was interesting. I think that was interesting--you saying that you might not want to be successful. Its great to hear that.

Thanks for reminding me that one needs not be successful in order to be a writer.

[Kameee]

Hey wgjones3,

I have to tell you that I got a great many chuckles out of your "taken out, shot, and dragged back to the keyboard" comment! Oh how many times I have tried that very thing! LOL!

For me, I CAN'T force the words.. they simply won't come!! Oh I have tried and given it the good effort but... it just fails miserably. My absolute best writing comes when I can shut the whole rest of the world out and just let the story flow. It's like I become the vessel and the story just writes itself while my hand serves as the tool to put it on paper. The characters breath and become real in my minds eye and I see it all just unfold and I have to put it down just like that.

*SIGH* Sadly enough, that happens all too infrequently these days but I do still remember the intense RUSH I get after writing a really great piece!

[wgjones3]

Kamee, I'm really glad you got a chuckle or two (or twenty) out of it. :D I'm sure someone who doesn't write wouldn't understand, but I've had scenes in stories that were just that. Hours and hours and hours spent pulling a couple of hundred words. And when I'm rolling, I can easily knock out a couple of thousand words in just over an hour. Oh, and as for that rush--I know this sounds vain but I don't care anymore, I've been stomped on by enough professionals in this industry that I know it's not pride speaking but a genuine thought--when I dug out my old manuscript after a six month hiatus and tried to polish it up for yet another round of query letters, I found myself getting this huge rush out of the story--especially toward the end, where my heart was literally racing as the good guys were running for their lives and the bad guys were swooping in left and right. Now that's a rush! It's actually worth the 5+ years I spent on it just to know that I wrote something that I'm that happy with, even if nobody else ever reads it.

I hope I can look back on my current project with such fondness someday.

[Zanzibar]

Yes! Yes! Yes!

If only our 'Rushes' paid the bills. :rolleyes:

Alas we can't always have our cake and eat it too.

I know what you mean wg about really enjoying your own writing. Also anyone I've ever had read my completed manuscript has told me how wonderful it is. And I think to myself...(isn't that a song? Oh, yes 'What a Wonderful World. But wait, I digress.) I think to myself, "If only I could get this book into a publisher's hands where they could read it. Yet the huge slush pile sits between me and them. How to breech that barrier?

:eek: Perhaps we should hunt down some publishers... Oh well, never mind. You get the general idea. :D (And it really is a joke by the way. I would never really do such a thing.)

One of these days..., until then we just enjoy what we love to do. WRITE!

Lynnette