 Action/Adventure: February 17, 2021 Issue [#10619] |
This week: The Road to Writing Edited by: Storm Machine  
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3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
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A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world. ~Susan Sontag
Write what should not be forgotten. ~Isabel Allende |
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The road to being a writer isn't the same as the journey we take with our characters, but it does echo this. I remember when I told my parents I was going to be a writer, they asked how I would pay the bills because I probably wouldn't write a great story until I was fifty, or maybe forty.
Sometimes the hard part about well-meaning people in our lives is they don't understand the road we're taking. Yes, my life experiences color my work, but I also have learned from everyone around me, and all the things that have gone on with the people in my spheres of influence. I have been writing all of that time, practically since I learned how. First award for writing happened in fifth grade. First published story at thirty. First book published at thirty-one.
Did these stories matter? They mattered to me. Some of them mattered to my readers or my teachers. Some of those stories where I learned to write the scenes and the characters meant I could communicate with people through junior high that I was otherwise unable to find common ground with. Junior high was just a tough time all around, and I'm glad I don't have to redo that chapter of life.
I'm older now, still writing, and still figuring out life and the books as I go. My epics have changed, and my stories are different. They're no less meaningful, though the audience may have changed. I no longer have my notebooks passed around my classes so they can figure out the next installment. Sometimes I miss that. However, the wisdom that comes from experience can also color my research and my writing into writing different stories and bringing new details into the limelight.
Sometimes I think we reach for young, inexperienced main characters that are learning because we can go with them on the journey. As authors, sometimes we need to figure all of the things out, and sometimes it's difficult to know it all in advance (especially for pantsers). But if this is your process, there's no reason why it can't be fixed in edits. I know I often don't know the entire story when I start a big project, but I know when I need things added. That's the next phase, to fill in those details and make sure that it isn't just a book where I walk the reader through my mental process of understanding what we need to do about the discovery of our own world.
If you need to, take time in the POV of every character. Let them all change with the story. It may not be your final draft, or even a full draft with anything, but it becomes different as you change your lens.
I understand now why my parents used to say things like you won't have a story worth telling until you're 40 or 50.
They were right that I would bring the life experiences to the stories. However, they were also wrong that I would not write stories worth reading on my way. Writing has been how I've understood the world around me and the feelings within me. That is the adventure. |
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| |  | Imagination (E)
Open your mind and let your imagination shine through
#2243877 by Angel  |
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BIG BAD WOLF is Howling 
Sometimes what brings people together is something very simple - money, common foe, common friend, popular hangout, and so on.
You're right. All kinds of things could bring us together. Or tear us apart.
Monty 
Your N/L caused me to think and times in my life I did not really like a person that I picked for a task because I thought they were the best choice but that is what I did.
You don't have to like them for them to do a good job. It's hard but it's interesting.
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