Wednesday, October 7, 2009

x-posted from the EVO blog

My Thong is Showing

Plot - Diagrams, charts, lists, outlines, chapter synopses, character sketches, scribbled notes.

Pants - sit and type.

What do you think I do? I have limited writing time and while I appreciate order, I have little patience for wasting time. I write ala pants. There are moments when I'm unable to use my laptop and will scribble on an envelope from my purse of paper towel while I wait. However, these occur for the current scene and rarely extend beyond unless a complicated plot twist has me stymied.

I admire those who can chart their manuscript into tiny segments but I am not one who can maintain the excitement through the tedious laying-out and continue to buzz through a book. I write as it comes to me. There is no muse. There is no magical elemental dragging me onward into publication. I never understood why writers give up their originality and creativity to a false god. Stories stem from your soul, sprout up through your viscera and flower at your fingertips. Take the credit. You've earned it.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm with you on this one. I once outlined a short story from start to finish and I couldn't write it. I eventually did, but it took me all summer long to finish 8k.
If I do it by the seat of my pants I can do that in a week of less.

Julia Barrett said...

Honey, your words make me hot! Really - I'm with you. I write what comes. I cannot plan out a single thing other than the original idea - which often manifests as a dream or a sudden inspiration. Sometimes a scene...a conversation...will hit while I'm driving down the freeway and I have to try to remember it until I get someplace safe so I can write it down on a scrap of paper. I've even resorted to using my cell phone. I write out a scene to text to myself!

JMH said...

A diagram? I might need a diagram to show me where my vas deferens is, but certainly not to write. For me writing is just spilling the overflow of life, a means to evenness and balance, and if that should form itself into a book, so be it.

I won't judge anyone for their means of writing unless it involves some pretty serious felonies. I might make fun of the ones with the diagrams and the flashcards and the graphs, but I would only do that if I loved the result.

Mia Watts said...

JMH, a diagram to your vas deferens is what you ought to present to every woman you find date-worthy. You wouldn't want her to have to guess if yours is unusually located. Spill, baby, spill.

Julia, hot? Clarify? Unless the muselessness has turned you on, I'm completely confused.

Amber, exactly!