I know when a story's getting close when the words start coming, the ideas start solidifying, and I can feel the shape of it.
Writing, at least for me, isn't just about having an idea and an interest in writing. Writing is a complex art. Everything has to come together. Finding the voice of the story, which isn't always the voice of a main character, is like finding the story itself. It's perhaps easiest to see what I mean in movies. You know when a movie has a voice. Usually it's a style, but sometimes it's the distinct shape of the story, or the given instincts of a director, or following an actor's lead (or letting the actor lead, which some critics don't seem to understand). Stories are the same way. What frustrates me most when reading budding writers is when they clearly don't grasp this, and resist all attempts to explain the absolute necessity of it. I mean, there are given genres for a reason, to give even the common writer somewhere to hang their story.
Anyway, the story I'm working on now is Kiss Me Quick. At this point it's sort of what I wanted to do with Montague (Or, In the Leviathan) (as I've since stylized it; check label records for details), but in a more contemporary fashion. What sort of spurred me on was coming across The Sun Is Also A Star in the employee breakroom. This was one of those young adult novels that became a movie recently, although the trailer didn't make it look like a young adult story at all. Anyway, I hadn't seen the movie, hadn't even considered reading the book, and then I had a look inside, and I started to read a little, and realized this was a style I could handle. I mean, it's what I've been doing anyway. All I needed was a story.
And I already had it. So the impetus began, and percolated.
I already had an opening few lines I thought were good, but then today came up with some new ones. Some of what's inspired me lately is a scholarly book about the writing of The Great Gatsby (Careless People by Sarah Churchwell), which has reminded me all over again of discovering the work of Hemingway for myself, which I've been doing in recent years, which was the result of Corey Stoll's brilliant portrayal in Midnight in Paris.
And Churchwell brings up how Gatsby is roughly 50,000 words, which is a target goal I hit many times over the past decade or so, with ease, but have never really considered as a potential end point for a longer story. Seems as good a time as any.
I'll keep you posted.
So you're going to write YA now? There is supposed to be a lot of money in that. Maybe you should read that Fault In Our Stars book too.
ReplyDeleteIdeally, I would write my thing before reading what others have done, so it's authentically my thing.
DeleteGood to hear the gears grinding back into life again. You've got this.
ReplyDeleteOh, they're always grinding. It's just a matter of finding that project that forces me to actually write. Ideally, a writer's life is consumed more by thinking than by writing. Unless you're a blogger committed to posting frequently. In which case you think as you write.
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