I'm getting to the grittiest parts of my story while also preparing for a Labor day weekend get away and I just can't seem to let my mind go there right now. It's too dark and I just wanna think about Orlando,Fla. and gettin' tore up at Bob Marley's Open Air House.
What has always been my main issue with not completing projects is that I'm an all or nothing person. I have to be completely submerged in something in order to give it my full attention. I'm unable to just write about some messed up shit I did, then switch gears and plan my itinerary for a snappy little get away. Blah.
While I should've been writing yesterday, I watched this instead....
and man....it was incredible. LOVED IT!!!!! Original, insightful, hilarious, well acted,great ending.... WATCH IT!
I'm totally going to attempt to work on my story more this week in an attempt to stomp the demons that generally squash my attempts at creativity. The demon of distraction, the demon of gluttony and the demon of apathy.
Yes Yoda I know, do not try, DO!
Yeah, I can understand not being able jump for your story to thinking about a holiday.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your break!
Completely understand about needing to time out form the story, though It is really holding my attention.
ReplyDeleteI really liked 'Choke, but I am a big Chuck Palahniuk Fan ever since I read 'Fight Club'.
Thanks Nautilus, I will! It'll be all ganja smoke, steel drums and rum drinks in 4 days. Woo-hoo!
ReplyDeleteYeah Barnes, me too. Palahniuk is a helluva writer. I possibly may have enjoyed the movie Choke even more than Fight Club but I adore Sam Rockwell. Keep hangin' in with me man, I AM GOING TO FINISH THIS STORY IF IT KILLS ME.
STOP! Do not even think about writing your next chapter. Go all out for your trip and labor day.
ReplyDeleteYou have to realize that this is a long term project that could easily reach 100,000 words. Which is about two novels in length.
Even if you sat and wrote the story from fron to finish in say 6 weeks it would still require at least another years work.
Now if you take a break and re-energize yourself, then you will find a new affinity for this story. I promise you that when you come back to it, next week or next year you will put the first paragraph down and fins that the door to the needed immersion will be open.
What you have to realize is that the story is already written, you are simply making a documentation of it. It is an interesting and compelling story but you can not force the accounting. So just rethefucklax, move away from it for a hot minute and know that we who are reading it will only allow you so much of a break before we start to clamor for the next piece.
Heidi you do know that not every section has to be four thousand words long correct a few hundred would be just fine.
BUT do not think you are going to stop this in the middle. Got it?
Got it! :) I can't tell you how much your advice and encouragement means to me. Thank you sincerely and I believe you're right. A break from it will help before diving back in.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that I have to go "there" when I'm writing it. Sometimes my husband will say "you seem so far away" and it's because I am. I'm back there, living it all again and trying to make my brain conjure the words to describe it. But something tells me,if I finish it,it will be worth every nightmarish second I've spent living and reliving it.
You can go back and look at what you did and lived through. But you can not relive those days.
ReplyDeleteWhen you come back Heidi, try to distance yourself from the moments behind you by a step or three. Become a dispassionate reporter of the events, observe them this time like a fly on the wall, not an actor on the stage.
I doubt the story will suffer much because you have your own style of writing that will still come through, you need not relive every moment to purge the shit, you only need reach behind you and push the handle down.
This is what this is all about, flushing the mental toilet.
I will definitely try to do it like that when I get back at it. In fact, I think I'll have to.
ReplyDeleteMakes perfect sense.