When you begin, you have a blank canvas. The story can go anywhere. There is no history to adhere to. The future is limitless. This isn’t always easy because sometimes there are too many paths and you can’t figure out which one to take or there’s a lot of fog and you can’t even find a single path, but generally it’s easy to start the boulder rolling down the hill.
Great! A start! Now what? Everything after the start takes a lot more work. Now that you’ve captured the reader’s attention, you need to hold it. You need to write in a captivating manner, keeping the story moving forward, keeping them involved, keeping the characters believable. This is where it starts to get hard.
I think I’m good at startings. That’s what I’ve been practicing, but I don’t think I’m as good with the rest. I’ve written one short story which I’m proud of, but wasn’t particularly good (yes, those two thoughts are compatible). I enjoy writing poetry because it’s complete even when it is short and I can tie it off soon after I’ve started, the momentum carries me through and I end up with something decent. Stories however, are hard work.
I’d like to write a good one. I’d like to just push through it but I think maybe I’m afraid of it. Hmm…I don’t think that it’s fear, but I’m not sure what it is. A dearth of diligence? A paucity of commitment? Some deep seated character flaw which makes it easy for me to start things but difficult to finish them? I don’t know.
I suspect that it’s a mix of things. I do know that I have trouble finishing things. Maybe it’s the sense of approaching ending? Maybe it’s the fear of releasing a creation into the wild uncertainty of public opinion which may shower it (and me) with ridicule and disparaging remarks? Maybe it’s just a general lack of stick-to-it-ive-ness? Who knows.
Anyone else feel this way? I can’t (don’t want to?) believe that I’m alone in this so feel free to chime in with your thoughts.
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April 19th, 2006 at 5:08 am
I run into several hitches when I write: I often try to force the story into a place it doesn’t want to go; I lose my vision of the end of the story and have difficulty tying it up; I really fall in love with a character or two and can’t bear to end the story.
These issues are probably tied very closely to a few, erm, serious character flaws. I’m a control freak, I get distracted easily, and I’m just a sucker to know what happens next.
It’s good to work through them, though.
Dy
April 19th, 2006 at 8:19 am
Yes, indeed starting is easy… After all, I opened this page from Bloglines in order to comment shortly after you posted, but it has taken me this long to actually write my comment.
My thoughts are more general than just about writing, but I think they might be applicable there too. Personally, what I think it comes down to is self-discipline - it takes discipline to start something, but it takes more discipline to see something through. If you have no self-discipline, you probably don’t start anything. I think those are the people who talk and talk about all these grand ideas, but never actually do anything. If you have a little self-discipline, you can start projects, but you seldom finish them. Not only does it take discipline to start something, it takes more to see the project through the difficult middle hump where you have to rethink things, spend some time doing things that aren’t quite as interesting, or do a bunch of planning in order to see the project through to the end. At that point, it can be easier to look around and find another project to start rather than buckle down and keep soldiering on with the project that is already underway.
Ok, enough sermonizing! Here’s the link I mentioned to you.
http://www.gty.org/resources.php?section=articles&aid=22
April 19th, 2006 at 8:42 am
I just wanted to add that I really don’t mean to be sermonizing or moralizing or insulting here - I say this as someone who not that long ago really had no self-discipline, and who is struggling mightily to developing more.
You know that old adage that says something like - the negative things you most notice about another person are quite likely faults that you have as well - well, there you go. *grin*
April 19th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
Dy, yes I hear you about losing the vision. When you start it’s this bright and shining image that’s totally clear in your mind, but as you go, some of the shine gets rubbed off and you realize that it’s either not as great as you originally thought or you just don’t have the knowledge to bring it forth and it’s better to leave a mostly perfect vision in your mind than a slightly broken vision for the world. I can imagine that stone sculptors would go through a similar debacle but even more so because there’s no going back for them.
Amber, I think you’ve got a good point about the self discipline. Most things I’ve tried have been very easy for me so I don’t think I’ve ever really developed a good sense of self-discipline. I’ll take a look at the link.
-Matt
April 21st, 2006 at 7:45 am
“Most things I’ve tried have been very easy for me” - yes, I know exactly what you mean, I think I’m the same way. I imagine our children will be like this too, and I really hope we can help them to develop enough self-discipline that they won’t be caught up in this!! This is definitely part of why I want to homeschool… I think both of us were not well served by the school system because we weren’t challenged - which as children we didn’t exactly mind much *grin* - but as adults I think we can see how this was to our detriment.
April 23rd, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Here’s another link for you that I just came across tonight. It doesn’t start out being all that relevant to what you’re saying, but I think it becomes so further down. I really like the quote at the end too.
http://mommylife.net/archives/2006/04/advice_for_writ.html