Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Tue, Jan 17 2017
Junk or brilliance? Brilliance or junk? Whatever I wrote it was still what I thunk.
When the experts, whoever they may be, tell writers to write down something, even if what's written is junk, they mean well. What they don't realize is that writers can be very prolific at writing junk, but that the junk still may not translate into a good piece of fiction.
I sat down earlier today and spent about 30 minutes writing what I can only call a scene, one involving a new character from a story I haven't outlined or plotted very well. I've been stuck on the whole project for awhile, so I decided to just spend the day with my character on a day that might be the type of day she would experience in the midst of a full-blown story. I generated several paragraphs, but I don't know that it was anything except junk. I still don't have a real direction for her, though I did find some events that were coming at her from out of nowhere.
I also found out something else new about her. She went to talk to a professional who is in a lot more trouble than she herself is. I'm wondering now if that was also a rather subconscious way of thumbing my nose at the experts who tell us to write just anything, even if what's written is junk, even if they are only so-called experts who are worse writers than those trying to write something brilliant.
In some sticky, twisted way, the experts are right, because I did end up writing something.
posted at: 13:58 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
When the experts, whoever they may be, tell writers to write down something, even if what's written is junk, they mean well. What they don't realize is that writers can be very prolific at writing junk, but that the junk still may not translate into a good piece of fiction.
I sat down earlier today and spent about 30 minutes writing what I can only call a scene, one involving a new character from a story I haven't outlined or plotted very well. I've been stuck on the whole project for awhile, so I decided to just spend the day with my character on a day that might be the type of day she would experience in the midst of a full-blown story. I generated several paragraphs, but I don't know that it was anything except junk. I still don't have a real direction for her, though I did find some events that were coming at her from out of nowhere.
I also found out something else new about her. She went to talk to a professional who is in a lot more trouble than she herself is. I'm wondering now if that was also a rather subconscious way of thumbing my nose at the experts who tell us to write just anything, even if what's written is junk, even if they are only so-called experts who are worse writers than those trying to write something brilliant.
In some sticky, twisted way, the experts are right, because I did end up writing something.
posted at: 13:58 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry