Mantra Monday
I'm starting something new: Mantra Monday. Every Monday I'm going to post a writing mantra. Feel free to comment, or to post your own.
Today:
Trust the Story
Trusting the story is related to the old standby "trust the process," which I do, but it goes beyond that. I've lost track of the number of times someone has told me, "this doesn't work, maybe if you found something different to put in," or a step is missing, or a character is lacking. Whatever it is, when I go back to revise, time after time, I find that I don't need to come up with something new. Whatever I need is already there in the story, sometimes buried, sometimes as an aside. "All" I need to do is dig it up, bring it to the front, make something of it. Stories do seem to hold all that they need, at least for me. My job is to be alert to what I am being given.
Case in point. For one packet, we needed to write a fractured fairy tale. I chose Little Red Riding Hood, but made the main character a boy and put it in a modern setting and had it be about baseball. But the character who was the wolf wasn't working, because what the modern wolf wanted wasn't clear, and Little Red's wasn't an active hero. When it came time to revise, I didn't need to add anything new, but to use what was there with a different emphasis. I don't know yet how the revision will be received, but it is a huge improvement over the original.
What about you, do you trust your story?
Today:
Trust the Story
Trusting the story is related to the old standby "trust the process," which I do, but it goes beyond that. I've lost track of the number of times someone has told me, "this doesn't work, maybe if you found something different to put in," or a step is missing, or a character is lacking. Whatever it is, when I go back to revise, time after time, I find that I don't need to come up with something new. Whatever I need is already there in the story, sometimes buried, sometimes as an aside. "All" I need to do is dig it up, bring it to the front, make something of it. Stories do seem to hold all that they need, at least for me. My job is to be alert to what I am being given.
Case in point. For one packet, we needed to write a fractured fairy tale. I chose Little Red Riding Hood, but made the main character a boy and put it in a modern setting and had it be about baseball. But the character who was the wolf wasn't working, because what the modern wolf wanted wasn't clear, and Little Red's wasn't an active hero. When it came time to revise, I didn't need to add anything new, but to use what was there with a different emphasis. I don't know yet how the revision will be received, but it is a huge improvement over the original.
What about you, do you trust your story?