Words of Practical Wisdom
Feb. 7th, 2004 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanOver in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala's journal there's a discussion of inspiration, and the unreliability thereof. And I posted something the discussion triggered in my memory, and I'm carrying it over here because it's germane to my day.
The story I posted had to do with being at a convention back in my youthful days as an editor, and hearing a Wannabe ask an Old Pro once "what do you do when the story just isn't coming?" And the Old Pro said "you go out and get it."
I always remembered that as a touchstone of the professional writer. Go out and get it. Club it over the head if need be -- you can make nice to it later, once you have it strapped down.
That's what I'm doing today. I have a deadline. And to go with that deadline all I had was a visual -- a boy, standing on red sand. And the deadline was coming up hard on my heels.
So I sat down and did some research. Where might that boy be? What does the color of the sand indicate about his location? What mythologies center around that location? What would have sent him there, into peril and hardship?
And out of the research (the going and getting) the story came to me. Not all of it -- this is not a familiar character who will not stop talking (Yes you Valere, now sit down and shut up). In fact, he doesn't talk much at all. He's a doer, not a talker. And not much of a thinker, either. But he has a great heart. And someday he may forgive me for clobbering him over the head and dragging him back to my burrow...
matociquala's journal there's a discussion of inspiration, and the unreliability thereof. And I posted something the discussion triggered in my memory, and I'm carrying it over here because it's germane to my day.The story I posted had to do with being at a convention back in my youthful days as an editor, and hearing a Wannabe ask an Old Pro once "what do you do when the story just isn't coming?" And the Old Pro said "you go out and get it."
I always remembered that as a touchstone of the professional writer. Go out and get it. Club it over the head if need be -- you can make nice to it later, once you have it strapped down.
That's what I'm doing today. I have a deadline. And to go with that deadline all I had was a visual -- a boy, standing on red sand. And the deadline was coming up hard on my heels.
So I sat down and did some research. Where might that boy be? What does the color of the sand indicate about his location? What mythologies center around that location? What would have sent him there, into peril and hardship?
And out of the research (the going and getting) the story came to me. Not all of it -- this is not a familiar character who will not stop talking (Yes you Valere, now sit down and shut up). In fact, he doesn't talk much at all. He's a doer, not a talker. And not much of a thinker, either. But he has a great heart. And someday he may forgive me for clobbering him over the head and dragging him back to my burrow...
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Date: 2004-02-07 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-08 01:18 am (UTC)I'd heard the first, but never the second part of that statement, which makes the first make even more sense. Thanks!
And congrats on your hunting/gathering abilities.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-08 05:58 am (UTC)Well, I can only claim credit for the second part, so glad it works for you. :-)
Re:
Date: 2004-02-08 06:02 am (UTC)Very few real writers are ever without a club to-hand, I suspect. I have one in the form of Bunter2.1 (my Palm), in which I capture likely candidates on the fly... (great conversation overheard in a Starbucks alst week is so going into a story.. as soon as I write one where it might fit)
Well, gee, umm...long time no see?
Date: 2004-02-08 03:57 pm (UTC)I know you're off to Boston this weekend, so probably short on time this week, but let's do chat when you have a moment? I will beg forgiveness for said vanishing...
Re: Well, gee, umm...long time no see?
Date: 2004-02-08 04:26 pm (UTC)e-mail me, you bastard. lauraanne.gilman at sff.net
*grin*