As a writer, I don't suffer from any kind of angst. I've heard many writers say that writing is hard and painful and it makes me wonder why they write. I write because whenever I pass too close to a keyboard, words start spilling out of my fingers unprovoked and spreading themselves across the screen.
I've written three complete novels (one published under a pen name, one being considered by an agent, one still in the filing cabinet) and two halves. I've written more biographies of Rick Springfield than any one person should be able to make a career of. I've written entire websites covering complex areas of law.
Today, I'm writing something that is either a long short story or a short novella. It's futuristic. It contains no dialogue. It is, in short, entirely unlike any of the many varied things I've written before.
And I'm a little worried about it.
I know it sounds crazy for someone who has been writing since elementary school, but that's never happened to me before. I don't know what this thing I'm writing is, whether it has a genre, whether it's supposed to be dark and dense and more descriptive than active like this. It's almost as if I've found myself giving birth to something that doesn't quite seem like it's going to be a baby.
I keep writing it. But I'm afraid of it. I don't think that's ever happened before.
5 comments:
Well, it's not like it'll spring to life and suck your face off. It's good to experiment, even if you have no idea where the work is going. I felt like that during the entire NaNoWriMo that I attempted. It wasn't a new genre but I had no idea what I was doing and where I was going. It ended up revealing itself to me. Maybe this will do the same? And I'm thrilled that you are writing again, no matter what, although it does sort of piss me off that you never have any writerly angst.
I disagree with Barb partially--it may spring to life, but rather than suck your face off (that's one preposition that HAS to be split), it might suck out something from deeper inside your soul than you've been willing to go. You are not a dreamer, and one of the Rules of Life I learned both at Columbia and from Laurence was that you should write the things you least want to write. If it makes you feel icky and sticky and it's uncomfortable, then it carries a resounding and universal emotional truth.
I forgot who said this, but I think it's so true: "Writing is easy. All you have to do is cut open a vein."
yls
havnt read any of your novels.This is the first time im visitin your blog.But i must say that you express your point,well.So be confident about it.
Fibinse :
http:\\iamairborne.wordpress.com:
About "J Lo": well both JA(a Indian celeb) and J Lo hv something tht really revives the basic instinct.Isnt it natural??...The point however is :
That saying u dont come near another guy...cn come close to murdering a conversation or a relationship...
Fibinse:
And i do think we should swap links...wt do u say??...
both have something inside and it needs a larger readership....i ws struck to see just 162 views on yours...tell me what u think of that??
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