When you sit down to write, other voices invade your creative space.
Here is what I have been telling myself despite these grating voices:
I knew that I wanted to be a writer in 3rd grade. It’s all I’ve ever dreamed of becoming throughout high school and I was pretty decent at it. But I never – I repeat – never pursued it until now. The thing that pushed me over the edge was the realization that I’m only losing time. Unexplored passions become paths to bitterness. Pursuing the dream of being an author has opened up a cool and fragrant place in my heart that I had forgotten about.
So let’s shut three more voices up today, as we push through with our writing. Here are some offenders:
4) You’re losing control of all the details. This one bothered me most at the beginning. It’s easier to deal with three or four characters, and one central location. But I added a second world, that has three sub-worlds, a transportation system, a government, a different food system, past relationships, broken families, etc…It’s hard to track this.
This voice stands on the rooftop and says, “Order order! This is getting messy! Fix it NOOOOOOWWWWWWWW”!
This voice speaks in the morning. I often feel like I’m going to a huge family reunion of 600 people. I’m certain there’s a connection to everyone, but it takes a handful of conversations to figure out who’s who.
To this voice, I say, “Let’s make a note and go back later.”
I believe that if you just make a little note in your word program, or Scrivener (which is amazing, by the way), you can just clean all that up in the edits. I think we agonize over those things on purpose to keep us from the main goal of getting those words out.
5) Your book is so similar to __________________ and no one is going to buy it. Income may be a motivation for you to finish your novel and I can’t say I’m entirely against that. I want to pursue publication and expect to be paid for writing this novel, but that’s not what keeps my butt in that chair filling the screen with words. When you’re think of salability, this voice materializes with hard logic.
It says, “Someone’s been reading Tolkein! And everyone is going to know. Ohhhh, just started the Harry Potter series? Know how I know? Because I can tell in your writing!”
Here’s what to say to that voice: So what?
Everything is like everything. You’re influenced by what you love to read and watch. If you love movies with rich characters and low-tech culture, you’re probably not going to write a great Sci-Fi novel or historical narrative. You’re apt to go with what you know. So don’t be afraid of that.
It’s impossible to avoid the influence of other things you’ve read/watched/heard. But don’t discount the influence you bring to this type of story. Your voice has never been heard in that setting, and you can’t make it come alive (unless you’re plagiarizing directly, you dirty cheat).
6) You don’t have any clue how this is all going to come together. This is where I am right now and it’s an odd spot. I have all these people in this world doing different things. Then a whole different set of people in another world started doing other things. They each have their own agenda and none of them are really telling me about what they’ll do next.
“Oh man,” the voice says, “you had an idea of what was going to happen but now you’re in a whole other place! So much for planning!”
The rebuttal for this is: my story is true, and that’s all that matters.
I’m not producing a plot, I’m following people and the plot they make themselves. I’m not making a melody here, I’m telling the story of these people and there may be a sour note or two. It’s an odd place to be, but I’m curious to see how it shakes out.
Here’s what I believe: If I don’t know what’s going to happen and I”m excited to see, my reader will be too.
For instance, I sat down on November 1 with a character that was going to be a big hero of the story. On November 5, that character died. I was shocked, but it fit right into the motivation of another character and provided conflict fuel that threw the story into overdrive. I still look back on that character longing to write about them, but someone else’s motive in the story made it impossible for them to survive.
Your passion has to be louder than the voices. Yes. Passion.
The fifteen mornings that I’ve spent in front of a blank page have been transcendent. I’ve stolen moments from every day life to gaze upon a world and characters that exist to fulfill a greater story. I don’t say that to sound sensational. I truly mean it. I love my day job. I am passionate about it.
But this is a dream that’s been in the basement for too long. After decades, I finally thrust that cellar door open to find it. I’m happy to announce it breathes. It’s alive. And so am I.
At any rate, tell those voices to quiet down and do more watching than dictating. See where these people with their individual passions are taking you. Keep writing and don’t give up. I waited 25 years to take this dream seriously, but I’m like a kid again in just under 30 days.