Learning to Fly

So far, so good. I've been keeping with my new goal pretty well and I feel like I've made some good progress in my work. That's not to say I've done as much as I would have liked to, but still it is still progress. I felt really good at about two o'clock this morning when I finished writing. I'd just finished rewriting a dialogue that I'd been struggling with this week. I like what I've got now - finally.

I attended a book group last night with my niece. The group had read Beardance by Will Hobbs. Connie, the discussion leader, read a little from his website about the experience Hobbs had in writing the book. He said he had the first ten chapters done, but that they didn't feel right. He went into the mountains and during his time there the story flooded into him. He said he started over again, throwing out the ten chapters he'd already written. Then he completed the book - start to finish - in less than a month. On his web page he wrote, "I found my fingers flying all day and into the night."

Wow! I know it feels good to finally get it right when you know that some thing’s off, but to finish the entire manuscript in one month - that's awesome.

There are so many things to slow you down as you write - and I'm not talking about work, family, or anything else in day-to-day life. I've meet so many people that have told me, "I'd like to write a book, if I can ever find the time." They make it sound simple. For them the only barrier to writing their book is putting aside the time to turn on the computer and type in about 50,000 words. How would it be if it were actually that easy?

Pulling all the elements of story together and weaving them into a readable and compelling story takes work. And not just work sitting at your computer. You have people to get to know (your characters), places to become familiar with (your settings), and you've got to research any story elements that aren't very familiar to you. And these are merely the basics.

When you do sit down at your computer to write, you have the mechanics of the craft to consider. How will you structure the story, both the plot and the words? How will you pull everything together - the characters, dialogue, and description? And how do the words you are using sound together?

I try to be aware of all of these things as I write my first draft, but if I let myself get carried away it can signal death. Anytime I feel I'm pausing too much and switching to the editor, I remind myself (as gently as possible) that I need to move on. I'll pick those types of things up in the second draft, but some days the second draft seems so far away. I know my manuscript won't be done in a month. For me it's more like 10 months to a year. What if I forget what I wanted to change? That's when the battle really begins. Do I go back or do I push myself forward?

That answer is different every time. Usually I'm on the side of pushing forward, but occasionally going back wins. And when going back does win it can be a waste of time. Not always, but it can be. I've gone back many times only to decide that it's fine the way it is. Or I change it once, then go back a second time to change it again. At some point I need to settle for a post-it note or tell myself, "If it needs changing, I will have ideas later too. This isn't a one shot thing."

Sylvia Plath said, "And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."

Self-doubt, maybe mixed with a touch of perfectionism, that's the major culprit of going back. No matter what you write about in life, when you are creating you need to let yourself go and let the story happen. The time to be critical is on a later draft when it is your job to fix the problems. For the first draft why not let your creativity take over and who cares where it leads you. It's an adventure; just go along for the ride.

If I can learn to do that, to block out the critic and let the creator run free, then maybe someday I'll even be lucky enough to experience what Will Hobbs described when he was talking about creating Beardance. And maybe one day my fingers will fly as his did.