Epiphany!
Remember* in my last post how I was feeling all gloomy about how I didn't do any writing and it feels as if I'm just pretending, etc, etc?
I HAVE MOTIVATION! And I realised what the problem was: I was trying to write someone else's story. Or, more accurately, I was trying to write my story in someone else's voice. And I hated that voice.**
It's not my voice, it's not my writing style.
The other night I was up with the baby and there was no cricket on, so I flicked through the channels to see what else I could watch so to distract me from the Child Who Does Not Sleep. And there was this programme on women adopting out their babies, and it followed them from early in their pregnancies to having the baby. And it made me think about my story, and how it was that emotion I wanted to convey, and that anguish and that longing for your child. Then I was having a shower and I realised that I can write this, I just need to do it the way I write other stuff. It needs to have less structure and more... it needs to kind of grow on its own, rather than to be hemmed in with a solid, traditional frame.
Yay, right? Thank you to all of you for your words on my last post!
And now: to work!
*it's fine if you don't remember :)
**It's Jodi Picoult's voice, in case you were wondering. I mean, I don't hate Jodi Picoult! Not really. I just don't like... some aspects of her books. OK, I don't really like her books. I think they're a bit formulaic and the tragedies in them seem to be too contrived. But they're not that badly written. I just don't want to write like that.
I HAVE MOTIVATION! And I realised what the problem was: I was trying to write someone else's story. Or, more accurately, I was trying to write my story in someone else's voice. And I hated that voice.**
It's not my voice, it's not my writing style.
The other night I was up with the baby and there was no cricket on, so I flicked through the channels to see what else I could watch so to distract me from the Child Who Does Not Sleep. And there was this programme on women adopting out their babies, and it followed them from early in their pregnancies to having the baby. And it made me think about my story, and how it was that emotion I wanted to convey, and that anguish and that longing for your child. Then I was having a shower and I realised that I can write this, I just need to do it the way I write other stuff. It needs to have less structure and more... it needs to kind of grow on its own, rather than to be hemmed in with a solid, traditional frame.
Yay, right? Thank you to all of you for your words on my last post!
And now: to work!
*it's fine if you don't remember :)
**It's Jodi Picoult's voice, in case you were wondering. I mean, I don't hate Jodi Picoult! Not really. I just don't like... some aspects of her books. OK, I don't really like her books. I think they're a bit formulaic and the tragedies in them seem to be too contrived. But they're not that badly written. I just don't want to write like that.