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Writer brain--may morph without warning
Apr. 23rd, 2012 09:28 pmI haven't written anything substantial for about two years.
Writing was back-burnered, packed away for storage, reduced to a hibernation level of keeping a few notes and backing up copies of the wips.
This weekend I took the parts out of the grease pack of the subconscious and bolted them back together, knocked the dust off the wips, began sorting through notes and have found something curious. Firstly, I didn't really decide to write again, or that I *should* write again. I've just been thinking about it, and started flipping through papers. No strategy, no pressure, just exploration and noodling.
Secondly, my writer brain has changed. The last time I looked at this stuff was a year ago, and honestly, I couldn't figure out the dead ends and filler from the real threads of story. This weekend I just knew:
"Here's a whole page of crap with one good image--let's notebook the image and recycle the page. Here's a scene so careful it's dead--chuck it. Here's where I shied away from risk, or hurting a character, or elided it without exploration of implication or emotional truth--chuck it. Here's a great start that went nowhere because I got scared the characters were taking control of the story--okay this we can work with!"
Strange to have a new perspective on storycraft, considering that the intervening time has only added experience points and bonuses to my math and science rolls. I mean, I took a break last term from Words With Friends and it took me a few games to get my groove back afterward. Yet coming back to writing I feel like things got easier while I was away; like I'm rusty and uneven but already better at seeing story mechanics and with potential to burn. I've had shifts like this before, but I forget how profound it feels when the fundamental mentation of writing changes.
Writing was back-burnered, packed away for storage, reduced to a hibernation level of keeping a few notes and backing up copies of the wips.
This weekend I took the parts out of the grease pack of the subconscious and bolted them back together, knocked the dust off the wips, began sorting through notes and have found something curious. Firstly, I didn't really decide to write again, or that I *should* write again. I've just been thinking about it, and started flipping through papers. No strategy, no pressure, just exploration and noodling.
Secondly, my writer brain has changed. The last time I looked at this stuff was a year ago, and honestly, I couldn't figure out the dead ends and filler from the real threads of story. This weekend I just knew:
"Here's a whole page of crap with one good image--let's notebook the image and recycle the page. Here's a scene so careful it's dead--chuck it. Here's where I shied away from risk, or hurting a character, or elided it without exploration of implication or emotional truth--chuck it. Here's a great start that went nowhere because I got scared the characters were taking control of the story--okay this we can work with!"
Strange to have a new perspective on storycraft, considering that the intervening time has only added experience points and bonuses to my math and science rolls. I mean, I took a break last term from Words With Friends and it took me a few games to get my groove back afterward. Yet coming back to writing I feel like things got easier while I was away; like I'm rusty and uneven but already better at seeing story mechanics and with potential to burn. I've had shifts like this before, but I forget how profound it feels when the fundamental mentation of writing changes.
