We all get caught up in our manuscripts. We get fixated on plot, characters, dialogue. We worry if that ‘he said’ is one said too many while trying to figure out how we’re going to gracefully info-dump.
And then, in the midst of it all, sometimes we have a realization. “But what about my memes, my vision? Isn’t that stuff more important than these everyday writer trivialities?” I had this realization recently. Last week I worried about info-dumping my world backstory. I hemmed and hawed over how to do it. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to dig into my vision of this particular world. And really, all the problems of storytelling and writing alike are insignificant when I focus in on this vision of what I want, what my world looks like, what it will be if I communicate it properly. And while communicating it properly is a great concern to me, it is less of a concern than the vision itself, if that makes any sense.
In other words, worrying about story issues can sometimes get in the way of vision itself.
What did I do?
I flipped through a Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within art concept book. I picked up Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome for $5 at Wal-mart, and tossed it in the DVD player. I read a few articles on global warming. The 21st Century seems to be The Century of Resource Wars. I made some notes.
The anxiety has subsided a little, and I feel a little more in tune with my original vision than I was last week. I feel a little more secure, and less conflicted.
Bathe in the memes of your story. You will reassure, and reaffirm your ideas and your purpose. When in doubt, refresh your vision.
You know I rarely (and this might not be the good way to go about this) worry about ANY of the rules…shoulds and shoould nots…info dumping and such when I write my first draft.
I mean I know I’ll write something and it’ll use something I shouldn’t do, but I write just to get the idea down. Then after I get the first draft written I go back and that’s when I really clean up and start to fix those things.
At that point I have the story down though and then I find it easier to find ways to fix the ‘bad writing’ and I haven’t lost the initial idea…
You can fix bad writing later. But what about bad storytelling?
When I get stuck on something it\’s usually not the writing. For me the writing is almost… secondary. It\’s relatively unimportant when faced with the concerns of the story. Story first, writing second.
Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the story that I forget about some of the cool themes of my sci-fi world that I need to express.
I guess when I think of writing I think of it as story. As of this point I have to rework my entire ch. 5. It doesn’t work (my intial idea didn’t work out as I thought it would). However I kept ‘telling the story’ because 1) I didn’t know how to fix it and 2) Ideas to fix a part of the story usually present themselves to me later on.
You can fix ‘story’ later too. Bad storytelling can be fixed I beleive in revision process. Chances are…you’ve put so much thought and effort into creating this story to begin with that your ‘bad storytelling’ is probably only a fraction of the entire story. Cause sometimes scenes we envisioned (sp) don’t quite work out…but I bet it’s only a handful of scenes…and I bet you’re aware of where those scenes are…which means you can fix them.
Everyone has some bad storytelling here and there. I don’t think a story is ever perfect first go around. You’ve got a good foundation it sounds like though. You’ve thought it out, you know how your story works, moves, unfolds…
(did any of that make sense? And I even still on topic of your original post?)
What a great post. I like the way you stepped back and reminded yourself why you are writing the story. I’m going to remember this. :)
Thanks Bren! I’m glad you’re enjoying the posts. Thanks for commenting. I’ve added you to my Writing Links and will be checking out the posts you’ve got over on your site over the next few days. :)
Thanks, Eric, that’s really nice. I’m enjoying your site very much. I just blogged on one of your posts. I can see I’ll be spending a lot of time here. :-)