![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Struggling Through
Apr. 8th, 2010 03:24 pmI'm having trouble with a story. It started out as a flash, and now I'm trying to expand it full length by adding another scene to the beginning. I can't find the right words. I try to make a sentence and end up with about 5 different tries -- all fragments. Then I realize, it's not the words I'm having trouble with, it's the voice. I haven't found the voice for the story yet. I never realized that's what's so hard about openings, is finding the right voice for the story. And so I decided that instead of trying to find the perfect sentence, I should concentrate just on getting some thoughts and words and ideas down and muscle along until I know enough of the story to find the voice--or let the voice find me.
ETA: And.... it's worked. I kept stumbling along and writing down ideas and words, even if they were essentially repeats of what I'd just said, even if they were out of order, and lo and behold, the story found me. Or the scene. I have the whole end, I just need to add a new scene onto the beginning, and then do some expanding on the rest. This is the feeling I've been looking for, for quite a while now. That big excitement and joy in writing, the enthusiasm to finish the story, to discover that world. I've been in a very blah mood about writing, and was beginning to fear I would never feel inspired again. I'm so very glad I kept hammering away at it.
Now, may I direct you, if you haven't seen it yet, to Nathan Bransford's post HERE. Specifically the part about relationships. It strikes me as very true, and something to keep in mind when crafting stories. It's about creating tension for the reader by having the character's relationship being full of up's and down's. One moment the boy feels the girl enjoys the heck out of him, the next moment, he feels she's ignoring him.
ETA: And.... it's worked. I kept stumbling along and writing down ideas and words, even if they were essentially repeats of what I'd just said, even if they were out of order, and lo and behold, the story found me. Or the scene. I have the whole end, I just need to add a new scene onto the beginning, and then do some expanding on the rest. This is the feeling I've been looking for, for quite a while now. That big excitement and joy in writing, the enthusiasm to finish the story, to discover that world. I've been in a very blah mood about writing, and was beginning to fear I would never feel inspired again. I'm so very glad I kept hammering away at it.
Now, may I direct you, if you haven't seen it yet, to Nathan Bransford's post HERE. Specifically the part about relationships. It strikes me as very true, and something to keep in mind when crafting stories. It's about creating tension for the reader by having the character's relationship being full of up's and down's. One moment the boy feels the girl enjoys the heck out of him, the next moment, he feels she's ignoring him.
