I usually have no idea what I'm writing about when I start writing, but I usually know what it isn't: a poem, a play, a screenplay, memoir, an essay, and a few other genres. So when I start writing, it's fiction. But that's all I know. (I know some call what I'm doing right now writing, but when I say I'm writing I mean fiction writing.) I don't write outlines. I do write words and sentences on bits of paper, and they collect on my desk. If I have no idea what they mean when I look at them a week later, I recycle those pieces of paper. If the words meant something to me, they'll come back because I don't forget anything that's important. What words meant may get stuck in the recesses of my brain for a year, but I'll think of them-- and their meaning-- again at some point.
So how do I figure out what I'm writing about? For one thing, I take a long time to get to the actual writing phase. I think and ponder and wonder for a long time. (As you may have guessed, I'm not a prolific writer. What do you expect when my Mercury is in Taurus?) Then when I feel ready, I write. Then I look at what I'm writing and figure out what it is I'm saying because what I've written is probably not the actual story. So I try to find the story, and that means letting go of a lot of words. Yeah--delete delete delete. It feels great to let go. Sound scary? Watching reality shows about hoarders will cure you of being afraid to let go.
How do I find a story? If a sentence resonates with me, if a sentence makes me uncomfortable, if a sentence evokes an "oh my god" reaction, I'm probably getting close. If I'm simply entertaining myself, tripping merrily along as I write, that's not the story. Put another way: what I write has to bother me. If I'm not bothered then nothing's there.
No comments:
Post a Comment