A Novel Idea?
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
A Novel Idea?
Hmm, the first chapter of the new novel. It’s…coming along. I think. Did I mention that Elise and I chose to start a brand new novel? No? Let me back up…
You would think that completing an already half-written novel would be a wise choice towards the ultimate goal of publishing. Professional writers may agree or disagree. Since I’m a novice, I’ll have to follow my own instinct on this one.
Completing what’s already half finished is a good idea. Right? Mostly. Maybe. In creative ventures there’s very little room for rights and wrongs, maybes and absolutes. For myself, I follow through as far as inspiration leads me. Sometimes writing progress slows, pauses, or comes to a downright, loud, skidding, leave-tracks-on-the-asphalt grinding halt. The dreaded writer’s block has your muse in it’s unyielding grip. Inescapable? Yes and no. Maybe you can’t budge your deadlocked idea. Move it forward in the path you know is there somewhere in the recesses of your fickle, creative mind.
You can, however, navigate around this roadblock. These aren’t altogether useless metaphors in this instance: roads, asphalt, roadblocks. This is how writing feels sometimes. You can be happily cruising down the highway with your novel. The paradise of successful publishing is the destination.You even have the directions clearly drawn out on a map. But, alas, the roads of creativity aren’t always smooth and clear. One bump, and you lose your grip on your prose. Your novel flies in one direction. Your train of thought tumbles down an embankment into oncoming traffic. The wind caught your map and plastered it to the windshield. Grab it if you can. Better hurry! The semi-truck of a professional writer is about to breeze past you. It’s glossy, best-selling hardcovers will stare down at you with amusement and effectively deal your now fragile writer’s ego an embarrassing blow.
Do not fret. You can get everything back. Merge them again. But it takes work, which is controllable, and luck, which isn’t. No matter the effort, creativity can not be forced to cooperate. It has to flow of it’s own accord. It’s a wonderful sensation when that happens.
So, what do you do when your well-fed story has decided to take a sabbatical? My answer is to leave it alone and come back to it later. Sometimes all you can do is work on something else. We’ve all done it. We were thinking. The answer wouldn’t come. Once we stopped thinking about it, focused on something else…BAM! There it is! The answer you were looking for earlier. No matter the subject, that’s the way it can and does happen. It’s the way our complex and imperfect minds work. It’s much less frustrating if we work with it instead of against it.
As for our new novel, this is why “State of Truth” has taken a temporary backseat. The ideas have been roadblocked and we’re being flagged in the direction of the detour.
Elise and I discovered, quite a while back, that working on a new idea often awakens creativity. New ideas emerge, build, and sometimes refresh the old ones. We may need to come up with yet another new idea. The one we have isn’t quite working. I like the storyline. The genre is unfamiliar to me, but the setting isn’t which is why it’s both interesting and frustrating. We discussed the story, plot points, and action at length. We like what we’ve come up with…in our heads. It isn’t quite making it to written word. I saw the first scene course through my head in concise flashes. Dark, mysterious. Intriguing and scary. I wrote my part of the first scene. It doesn’t work. Yet. If I can get the visible word to correlate with my thoughts…
…Well, I’m working on that. I like this story so I’m determined not to give up on it.
On to the first chapter…again.
We’ll get it on paper Pixie. With the two of us pens in hand no obsticle has a ghost of a chance
Right there with you. 370 pages into a novel and B L O C K E D. I think there are road crew and cranes in the way. Good Luck!