Last night I went to Panera Bread Company after work and knocked out 1,500 words rewriting/writing a scene I'd been struggling with for some time. From the first line, it melded together into a greater whole. By the end, I was spent, though I'm pretty sure most of it will endure the final cut. (Though the female character's voice might still need some tweaking.) I left the restaurant feeling clean and satisfied.Tonight I went to the same Panera Bread Company, arriving within an hour of when I arrived yesterday, drank the same soda, then stumbled through 994 words of a scene within the same chapter I worked on yesterday. From the first sentence it fought me; each line refusing to cohere to the next. Like varnish, it'll probably all have to be written over so that the original disappears beneath future shiny competence. I left the restaurant feeling confused and frustrated.
And this is why it's difficult to write daily - because no matter how identical the circumstances are when you start, the results can be so radically different. Why spend a couple hours on a scene or a page or a paragraph that refuses to comply? One hour can equal a page or a paragraph or a sentence or a complete book outline. Who knows what's going to happen until you do it?
Yet if you don't do it, nothing will happen.
If it's your calling, you don't stop trudging forward - you write, you attend writing classes and conferences, you write, you read writing books, you write.
To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton's famous quote on Christianity: "Writing has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried."
Don't let the uneven results keep you from your calling. God put it in your heart for a reason. Put it on paper for him.
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Image borrowed from the Miscellanies blog.
I needed this tonight! It's Sunday night, I had a nap that went way too long and now I'm settling in to write. Thanks for the inspiration, I needed it - especially today. By the way,I love your closing paragraph. I shall copy it and post it on the bulletin board above my writing desk. :-)
ReplyDeleteKent, how well I can relate to this scenario! I had a sort of epiphany earlier this summer as I was discussing the writing process and the writer's routine with a friend who is working on the manuscript of his first novel.
ReplyDeleteIn our conversation, I found myself making all sorts of excuses for why I can't, won't, don't write more. Many of these centered on circumstances that seemed beyond my control, such as, there's housework to do, I'm too tired, or I'm lacking inspiration, etc. What I realized was that, for all the uncontrollable factors in my life, I could control myself as a writer. While developing a routine for writing might not always produce results, it does provide an environment conducive to growth.