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As an aspiring writer, I blog about whatever happens to move me at the moment -- though some posts contain serious content, my big-picture goal is to bring a little humor into an often humorless world! Welcome, y'all, and make yourself at home! Please make sure you update your bookmarks!


When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger...Epictetus





Sunday, January 23, 2011

Listening

There is always a period of time, after I've finished writing one story and before I begin a new one, when I think I won't be able to write anything else. I think the muse will not return and the voices will remain silent. So far, I've been wrong about that -- though the time between can be variable -- the longer it is, the more worried I become. And, the more worried I become, the less likely I'll be to come up with something new. So, I try to take it a day at a time, try to listen for the one voice which will finally speak to me very clearly and then open the door so that the other characters may add their voices to the din.

In the beginning, as ideas rotate around my brain, I can't make heads or tails of anything. The story is disjointed, the characters don't have names, the setting is elusive. Sometimes, more than one story is going through my head at the same time. I've had ideas percolating for years which have never seen the light of day -- and I've had ideas come from out of the blue and have been told to "write this down now."  I don't really have any control over it. I suppose I could say, no, I will not write that but, so far, I've never refused any road the muse has led me down.

So, I wait and wonder what will come out of the chaos next.

I have a name. A place. The main female character even has a job that surprised me a little but then, I had an image of something which happens on down the road, and I realized, "oh, I get it."  I still don't know if this will be what will ultimately be written. I don't know when it will happen, how long it will be, whether it will be told through one character's eyes (as most of what I write has been) or through multiple viewpoints. I don't even know whether it has a good ending or a bad one. Most of my stories have had reasonably good endings -- there might be a few loose ends and everything might not be a bed of roses but, overall, goodness reigns. But something tells me, one of these days, that may not be the case. I've been known to throw a few curveballs.

So, a writer, in whatever stage they are in, first-time or many times, published or unpublished, has to, before they ever put a word down, master the art of listening. 

And seriously.

They really do talk to me.

I'm not making this up.

2 comments:

  1. I agree,, i sometimes don't know if I am dreaming or a real person is talking to me or I am sorting out a tale...

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  2. And it's hard to explain to someone whose brain doesn't work the same way -- my husband's brain is geared toward math and science -- I can talk to him about my writing but he really can't totally comprehend what's going in my head. The funny thing is, if I CAN'T hear the voices, that's when I start to feel crazy...

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