Why the rush?
I'd spent the day cleaning and while doing so enjoying my characters in my head. I went to bed wanting to clean some more today and wanting to write. And yeah, with the internal battle going on the guilt and stress started up. I wanted to do it all. The thing is I can't write a few words and walk away. It takes a lot of concentration from me to get it done. So if I'm writing I can't be doing anything else.
I realized a few things. I enjoy living with my characters while I'm writing them-a lot more than I like writing. As a matter of fact I don't like writing. I do like making up stories. Writing it all down makes it a job. A stressful, painful job. And like every job I hate doing, I try to get it done as quickly as possible so that I can put it behind me.
This is not a good idea with stories. I'm not saying this to preach about writing too fast or not revising the right way. There are plenty of posts on the internet about this. I'm talking about the emotional aspect for you. Yeah, I actually care about you, not how you have to be doing this or that wrong. If you are having trouble emotionally then all the crafty how to posts in the world aren't going to help you.
It starts inside. It should stay inside.
Creating a person:
While we work on a book, we're learning and creating our characters. I don't care how organized a writer acts like they are, no one knows their characters as a whole person before they finish their book. Sorry. They don't.
They can say how a character would react to certain things and that's fine. That doesn't make the writer know them. It makes them know what type of person the character is. What makes us truly know them is the time spent with their scenes in our head-all those scenes that never make it to the page. Unless, of course, you do write every scene that plays out in your head. If this is so then you probably have to cut a lot at the end, huh? Okay, I still know you don't write out every scene or conversation. It's just impossible. Unless you really do. Man, that would be one long, boring book, wouldn't it? 'Cause as a writer we know already that most of what goes on in our head is just for us to learn our characters.
These internal scenes are what a writer has to have in order to write. At the end of the book, we have a completed person. We then box them up and start on a new person. We're okay to box them up too.
Wait? Are we? We always have a time of depression after finishing a project. First, we're happy, then we're sad. Why? Because we're saying goodbye to that person we spent so much time learning and living with. We know we're fickle and we've just out and out used that "real" person. They are real now, right? We're finished with them. They are of no good to us now. We toss them.
Yes, we still love them, but no, we don't still live with them.
We mourn.
Then we begin falling in love with someone else.
I decided last night that I'm not going to push myself to write this book just so I can be done with a job I don't like-writing. It's kinda like cleaning up the kitchen. I love to cook, but not doing dishes.
So, what am I going to do? Slow down and let myself enjoy these characters. I can think about them for weeks and write 500 words. Who cares?
The important thing is my emotional well-being as a person. It makes me happy to create. It stresses me out to write. So, I'm going to enjoy more of these internal scenes. I'm going to enjoy thinking about what makes Aspen and Jason so special.
I'll write when I feel like it. There's no rush. 'Cause guess what? I don't have a deadline. Nanner, nanner, nanner!
I realized a few things. I enjoy living with my characters while I'm writing them-a lot more than I like writing. As a matter of fact I don't like writing. I do like making up stories. Writing it all down makes it a job. A stressful, painful job. And like every job I hate doing, I try to get it done as quickly as possible so that I can put it behind me.
This is not a good idea with stories. I'm not saying this to preach about writing too fast or not revising the right way. There are plenty of posts on the internet about this. I'm talking about the emotional aspect for you. Yeah, I actually care about you, not how you have to be doing this or that wrong. If you are having trouble emotionally then all the crafty how to posts in the world aren't going to help you.
It starts inside. It should stay inside.
Creating a person:
While we work on a book, we're learning and creating our characters. I don't care how organized a writer acts like they are, no one knows their characters as a whole person before they finish their book. Sorry. They don't.
They can say how a character would react to certain things and that's fine. That doesn't make the writer know them. It makes them know what type of person the character is. What makes us truly know them is the time spent with their scenes in our head-all those scenes that never make it to the page. Unless, of course, you do write every scene that plays out in your head. If this is so then you probably have to cut a lot at the end, huh? Okay, I still know you don't write out every scene or conversation. It's just impossible. Unless you really do. Man, that would be one long, boring book, wouldn't it? 'Cause as a writer we know already that most of what goes on in our head is just for us to learn our characters.
These internal scenes are what a writer has to have in order to write. At the end of the book, we have a completed person. We then box them up and start on a new person. We're okay to box them up too.
Wait? Are we? We always have a time of depression after finishing a project. First, we're happy, then we're sad. Why? Because we're saying goodbye to that person we spent so much time learning and living with. We know we're fickle and we've just out and out used that "real" person. They are real now, right? We're finished with them. They are of no good to us now. We toss them.
Yes, we still love them, but no, we don't still live with them.
We mourn.
Then we begin falling in love with someone else.
I decided last night that I'm not going to push myself to write this book just so I can be done with a job I don't like-writing. It's kinda like cleaning up the kitchen. I love to cook, but not doing dishes.
So, what am I going to do? Slow down and let myself enjoy these characters. I can think about them for weeks and write 500 words. Who cares?
The important thing is my emotional well-being as a person. It makes me happy to create. It stresses me out to write. So, I'm going to enjoy more of these internal scenes. I'm going to enjoy thinking about what makes Aspen and Jason so special.
I'll write when I feel like it. There's no rush. 'Cause guess what? I don't have a deadline. Nanner, nanner, nanner!