I just finished reading a post by J.Scott Savage on his blog Finding the Magic. Besides posting a scary and intense scene from one of his unpublished books (only read it if you are not prone to nightmares), he gave some writing advice.
For some time I've been struggling with the novel I'm working on. It's gotten to where there is no joy in the writing. His advice was to not worry so much about finishing things. Sometimes it is important to write that stray scene that doesn't seem to fit anywhere and get it on paper. Creativity gets stifled when we handcuff it to a specific story and never let it stray.
I know where the story needs to go, and I still think it is a good story, but I've been so worried about getting it finished that I've put aside everything else. Meanwhile, all the writing is suffering. The post I read on Scott's blog really helped me put things in perspective. It's important to finish the novel I'm working on, but when it becomes a chore, then the writing suffers and doesn't get anywhere very fast. It's more important to keep the creativity alive. The novel will get done, but not to the exclusion of all the other scenes running around in my head.
4 comments:
That's good advice,thank you.
That is good advice! Thanks for passing it along Stephanie!
I hope you can pick something else up and get back into the groove. Next thing you know it might be your troubled book that starts whispering to you in the night.
Hey, I'm sorry I haven't been by more often - I subscribe to a blog roll and for some reason it hasn't been giving me your updates! I got today's but I see you've had several posts I've missed. What good are these little gadgets if they don't actually work? Argh.
Guess I'll need to check on you the old fashioned way!
Enjoy your writing!
I think just the pressure we put on ourselves to finish something can block creativity. Sometimes, I just work on something completely different and then I can get back to the writing that was causing me trouble and solve the problems with it.
This is very good advice. Writing should always be fun. If it's not, we lose the spark in it, and it's the spark that makes it good.
Post a Comment