I haven’t felt like blogging much lately, or being online at all, for that matter. Instead, I’ve been occupied by reading, family stuff, and being outdoors. At work, I’m engaged in hardcore research. Still working on debunking a local legend and have all but a couple of points figured out. I catch myself writing portions of that article in my head.
I’m working on another large writing project at home. Have been working on it for a couple of years now. Not steadily, but a little bit here, a little bit there. I’ve accumulated a lot of notes. I don’t feel ready to start writing yet, even though common writing advice holds that I should be writing, even if I don’t feel like it. Trouble is, I don’t see taking notes and gathering information as part of the writing. Yes, I know on a practical basis that is part of writing – I couldn’t do the writing without it – but unless I’m actually typing out paragraphs as part of a story, it doesn’t feel like writing. Does that make sense?
I could just let the large project go, not worry about it, move on to something else, but it won’t let me. Just when I think I’ve forgotten about it, back the story comes. My sticking point seems to be voice. Who’s voice will the story be told in? Normally, a voice comes to me relatively quickly. Not so this time. Perhaps it’s because my protagonist and antagonist could easily switch places and one of these characters is not well developed in my mind.
So, I keep puzzling and reading and doing other stuff, refilling the reservoir until I’m ready to write. Of course, I’m not avoiding writing altogether. There’s the legend article for work that’s mentally half-written. When I pull together my last couple of facts, the article will be formally written within about three sneezes’ worth of time.
This is a subject of great interest.
Take a profession like acting, John Travolta for example. Those guys make movie after movie after movie…because it’s a blast. They love what they do and it’s envigorating, alive, interactive, social, and ego boosting. People are all over the sets, fans are waiting down the street, and actors are always talking about how much they just loooooove their jobs. Top it all off with a ginormous paycheck.
Writing is really none of these. “Yippy, I’m going to go sit in my chair in front of a video screen and squeeze information out of my head all by my lonesome…” Not very appealing really.
Explains why many writers were/are morphine users or alcoholics, because the drugs could keep the dull-driving part of their brains happy while the other part of their brain did the work. (That was not a suggestion! Jim Lehrer has written tons of books, clean as a whistle…but I was just sayin’…)
Writing takes real devotion and diligence, but we’re all looking forward to what you come up with…the finished piece is the payoff that is always the best part.