Writing is something I love. I enjoy both writing my own fiction and reading almost any kind of fiction I can get my hands on. But I do have a problem, and yeah, it's the one you're thinking.
My biggest problem with writing is following through with it and finishing the story! I have countless works halfway finished but nothing seems to be good enough to add to them. It's like my characters were walking around, doing what they were supposed to, and then they just got bored and went back home! Don't they realize that the best part is coming?! No, they don't, and neither do I. There is a perpetual wall of writer's block that I run into, and I can never seem to get past it. I wonder if I have ADD, ADHD, or if I'm just looking for an excuse. Since I can almost always crank out a wicked 15 page final paper two days before it's due, I feel it must be the latter.
Another issue I run into often is that of the timing of my inspiration. I can stare at MS Word for hours during my free time and come up completely dry from the inspirational well of ideas; then I go to work or school and WHAM, countless ideas come spurting out of the recesses of my mind like blood from an arterial wound. Alas, inspiration is like a fickle witch who likes to curse me with her presence at only the most inopportune moments.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised by a witch though. We all know inspiration is a capable and crafty enchanter who makes herself relatively available to poor, unfortunate souls such as myself. After all, she can steal a princess and pump her full of hair growth supplements, feed her apples of sleeping death (they make great pies), she can even give her legs with convenient expiration dates. The problem comes when she laces a string into your deal and yanks on it. And she normally does that for weird reasons like your stealing her turnips or being rather attractive or cause your dad has an underwater kingdom. It seems that one should not be surprised by her actions against them. I mean, she's pretty formulaic (except for Glenda, who I think is just biding her time for something big). I need a sword of truth to stab her with, but then I suppose that the inspiration itself would be dead.
Hmmm...I'm not sure if anyone beside myself could follow that, but I like how it sounded so I'm leaving it. In fact, that very thought leads me to ponder one more big writing issue of mine. Clarity for me does not compare well with the clarity of others. Maybe it's because my brain likes shortcuts. Basically, I like to try and think a few steps ahead of myself sometimes, and it can get me into major trouble when doing something tedious like algebra or handling nitroglycerin. I give a part of a story I've been working on to someone and they look at it with questioning expressions and furrowed eyebrows like I handed them a portrait of their mother as a two headed dragon (not that that depiction would be far off for some people other than myself). When this type of thing happens, a small portion of my motivation gets destroyed and, eventually, I just can't seem to progress with the story. The confounded thing is that those same people come back and beg me to move forward with my work! After you told me it was confusing and convoluted? Really?!
Oy vey! Someone come and do my schoolwork, work, and social life please! Once I have those taken care of, I will have time to figure all this out and make these stories real.
No takers?
Nobody?
Oh well, I guess a dream is something only I can dream for myself, right? Maybe I should be writing something more important than a blog post, huh?
I followed it. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd we beg for more even when there's a disconnect because you're just that darn good.
And don't qualify your blog post with the thought that you should be writing something more substantial. Writing is writing, and if you get a chance to create something and put it out there, that's ALWAYS a good thing.
But I definitely can't take on your other stuff for you. Sorry about that one.