"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."
-E.L. Doctorow
-E.L. Doctorow
I am mostly an aspiring or failed writer, depending on how you look at it. I start writing, fall in love with an idea, begin to question it, learn to hate it, and discard it half started or half finished. Somehow, I always assumed that real writers knew the progression of a book before they sat down to write, that the ending was a clear as the first sentence, neatly filled in with the events between.
Perhaps this misconception stems from writing papers in college. You are taught to outline your ideas, create a thesis statement and arrange the entire paper to fall nicely into that single thought. No matter how I tried, I could not outline fiction. I would try, then somewhere in the process of writing out the words my characters would mutiny, taking over the story and leading it into directions I never intended.
My most recent endeavor, I've given total control to the story. I planned carefully for the first sentence then released the creative process. Strange and unexpected events have occurred, the characters look nothing like I imagined with strong personalities I don't always like. It's working out amazingly well. Words flow onto paper (yes, I'm hand writing it first...my brain works better that way), and although I've had to have a long, stern talk with myself about work ethic and putting in appropriate hours, there's beginning to be hope.
I have no real thought beyond finishing the book. I'm assuming there is a long and complicated process to finding an agent and a publisher...if you've written something worth publishing in the first case.
Now, off to write.
Perhaps this misconception stems from writing papers in college. You are taught to outline your ideas, create a thesis statement and arrange the entire paper to fall nicely into that single thought. No matter how I tried, I could not outline fiction. I would try, then somewhere in the process of writing out the words my characters would mutiny, taking over the story and leading it into directions I never intended.
My most recent endeavor, I've given total control to the story. I planned carefully for the first sentence then released the creative process. Strange and unexpected events have occurred, the characters look nothing like I imagined with strong personalities I don't always like. It's working out amazingly well. Words flow onto paper (yes, I'm hand writing it first...my brain works better that way), and although I've had to have a long, stern talk with myself about work ethic and putting in appropriate hours, there's beginning to be hope.
I have no real thought beyond finishing the book. I'm assuming there is a long and complicated process to finding an agent and a publisher...if you've written something worth publishing in the first case.
Now, off to write.
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