Most of my writing emanates at night. Rarely do I find myself typing away during the day. If I ever do, it's editing the work from the night before. I find myself in the zone when I'm alone in the living room, at 1am with the television and lights off, relying only on the light emanating off the screen. I find myself easily distracted otherwise.
Getting through high school, I realized fairly early that I had a strong desire for writing, especially fiction. I find that writing has great power: for the duration of any read, the writer takes you on a journey that eventually, regardless as to whether it was the ending readers hoped for or not, has been decided on by the author. As much as I enjoy the power aspect of it, I also enjoy the responsibilities of writing. The responsibility of presenting something that is realistic within the bounds of the story that is entertaining and gives the reader a great feeling of satisfaction upon completion. Possibly my favorite quote comes from Spiderman, "With great power comes great responsibility". I truly believe in this.
Some of my greatest ideas come at night as I try to sleep. One night I just developed this awesome concept for a story. First, I developed a main character and at least one other character that would help my main to survive. Then I decided on the character(s) that I wanted to be the offender(s). Strangely, in relation to story, I usually develop the ending first and from there spores the rest of the characters. Then I can finally begin to plot out the events that lead to the final confrontation. From there, I begin to picture the settings for the story, the key places needed withing my world (the cemetery, the town centre, the government building, etc). Then, I get caught up in the world I have created. I create my first major scene, and the direction is set. If I decide on something I want to happen in the middle of a story, I write it down with a list of other events I wish to take place. Suddenly, I have built everything and it's just a matter of linking everything together. I find the process so exciting.
I'm currently started on my second draft of this story (26,000 words). The first draft was 37,000, and using my first draft as a cross reference, I have developed even more ideas on top of the original. (I expect the finished draft to reach 80,000 with ease.) There is this one scene at the moment I'm extremely eager to get into. But I use this as motivation to get there -- I can't write out of linear time. I feel I have to get "A" done before I can move on to "B", but this is what drives me. I just hope that anyone who reads my finished drafts in the future can experience the thrills I get as I write. At the stages where I really can't wait to arrive at that one motivating scene, I can only hope that the reader can't wait to find out what happens next.
At this time, I currently have two other stories that I want to create, that I have already conjured up in my mind, and that I have written down. But I can't even begin to work on them until I completely finish the story I'm on now. And this story is so far from finished it's not funny. But it's one big adventure, full of great anticipation and excitement. My writing process is really just one big adventure, an adventure that won't end for a very (VERY) long time. I just can't wait to find out what happens next. :P
Yours truly,
Andrew,
aka Meady
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Thanks, Meady. I think if you can't wait to write the scene, if you're feeling the tension in the writing, then hopefully that should come through to the reader too (as long as you're not feeling it's a slog getting to that point!). But you're right: it is one big adventure, isn't it? I love it!
ReplyDeleteTracey