It seems to me that there are three major hurdles to writing. I have been thinking about this because it has always been on my bucket list per se to write a book.
I spend more time than I care to admit turning over potential ideas in my head. Some aspect of some portion of life is out there and it is so interesting to me as to cause an unassailable craving wherein my constant desire will be to study and analyze and chew and digest and reform and detail and describe and present to others the fruits of my labor. The problem is that I don't exactly know what that is. Maybe that is in itself my ideal idea? That would be serendipitous in a quaint and sardonic way.
However, I have been misleading. There are three hurdles as I can see it and none of them are inspiration (or the finding of that idea). Maybe to be good writing one must find that idea but that is a completely different thing altogether.
The First Hurdle is The Blank Page. Nothing is quite as menacing as the prospect of infinite choices. I struggle to decide what I want to eat and my range of cooking and/or restaurants is nowhere near infinity. I have trouble deciding between two restaurants, to add to that only compounds the issue. To put it another way, I believe I spend more time browsing the library than reading books. I spend more time wading through Netflix than watching movies. Maybe that is hyperbole but not by much. The act of Starting is at times insurmountable.
Once one starts, they have a sudden burst of momentum. The Second Hurdle is Keeping Momentum. Keeping that momentum is Difficult. Many caricatures have been instilled in books and movies about the writer who aggressively berates those around him who break his train of thought. In some ways, this is just on off-shoot of the First Hurdle. Breaking momentum is akin to restarting and starting is dangerously fickle. However, these two hurdles are dissimilar enough to distinguish.
Finally, the Third Hurdle is Letting Go. Writers tend to be perfectionists, especially the good ones. They can't stop until every word is carefully and intentionally penned so as to be portray the intent of the author. Writing a book is easy if you can start and keep going (hurdles one and two). Writing a Good Book is difficult unless you find the best time to jump the third hurdle. Jump too early and your work is incomplete and flawed too heavily to be admired. Jump to late and it loses its heart and has the potential of losing the audience.
All three hurdles come down to one basic idea: Fear. Fear can drive an author to success or cripple him into indolence. Fear to start because what if I fail? Fear to stop because what if I lose it? Fear to let go because then I lose control.
I was listening to an interview with a Stand Up Comedian earlier today. He was describing how he would purposefully tank himself by losing his audience or pushing them away or angering them in an effort to fail. Then, in that place of failure (and according to him only in that place of failure) was he able to learn how to truly be successful. Allow me a moment to paraphrase: "Only once you learn how to be okay with that feeling of failure and to even learn how to like failure because of what you can learn from it can you be successful."
I suppose these ideas are poignantly on my mind tonight because of a new book I am reading. The book argues that everyone longs for a feeling of importance. Sometimes they find this importance in their work or in their hobbies or in their families. Sometimes they find it in harmful things like drugs or crimes or, even, drifting into mental insanity. A person's importance can come from anything really.
I think my sense of importance comes from influencing others towards wisdom, healing, and maturity. I can unpack those terms sometime if you'd like. Suffice it to say for now, I have always believed that I can adroitly accomplish these goals through the writing of a book.
So eagerly I endeavor to jump those Three Hurdles to tackle that great enemy Fear in the attempt to create something that imbues me with importance through the betterment of others.
Whew. That was wordy.
I've never aspired to be a writer, but I do like to write. To me, it's telling a story, or explaining something, or a series of events I remember. It's been a long time since I tried any fiction, but maybe that's worth a go too. As for being afraid, that's something that is helped by knowing you're going to mess up 3 times before something is correct. Sure you can self-edit as you go, and I do that to an extent, but it's no where as effective as going back after you're done, or better yet the next day.
ReplyDeleteAs you are penning, typing your ideas, go with the thoughts without worrying about spelling etc. You can always correct that, and even move things around to make the ideas flow better. But that's editing, not writing.
Good Luck
Dad