Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Unfollowed Way

I marvel at the act of writing. The different stages of coming to a story. Forming characters and plots to a point where there becomes an overwhelming need to chronicle the mental outline in written form.

The tentative first page, written in a flash, yet contemplated during the entire manuscript's creation.

Stumbling blocks of timeline and substance, stand only as long as the author wills them exist. I say "wills them to exist" because a author writes "to fit" when an awkward passage appears. The author resists backtracking or deleting what has been written.

So the greatest moment of the writing process happens: Bridging a scene to another scene's timeline or event. If you say you have never had this epiphany moment, you have never put your creative mind to the test. Which means you have a HUGE problem waiting on the horizon. You'll call it writer's block, but it's the bridge that is out and you have no way across.

Just ask any writer what it's like, when they are tens of thousands of words into their manuscript and they have to bridge two powerful scenes that are not in perfect parallel. Ask them how satisfying and tenuous those moments are and what it's like when the challenge is overcome. Honestly, it makes you KNOW you can write, that you are truly an author, whether published or not.

A story, for an author, is about the WAY the story flows. Hitches or blockages along the path of a story are what divide the long story writers from successful authors. Welcome the challenges that come your way as you write and travel the unfollowed way, the inventive way, to make your work extraordinary.

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