Stuck in My Head: The Balance Between Discipline and Creativity
First . . . I have got to have you click over to this review of Freudian Slip because it has the most HI-LAR-I-OUS first line in a book review ever. Worth the trip, no?
All right . . . so . . . where do I get my ideas from? The $64,000 question I get asked all the time when people find out I am a writer (which is why I usually say I am an actuary). I'll tell you where. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. yesterday, stressed out, tired, kicked in the back by Demon Baby who was in my bed and insists on sleeping "thisclose" to me. And I had a Shiny New Idea. Not just ANY Shiny New Idea, but a totally awesome, got a major hook/concept that I think ANY editor would want to at least look at, kick-butt idea.
Only problem? I am 150 pages into my thriller rewrite.
What's a writer to do?
Well, if you're me, you'll at least try the voice on for size and get something down on paper until you have time to flesh it out.
But here is something I have learned over time. Those Shiny New Ideas that come along fairly rarely, that give you goosebumps, that have the high-concept piece, that could be a breakout novel? They don't come along every day, so you snatch 'em when you can. But the other piece of that is at some point, you have got to marry that with discipline or you would stop every work in progress because something new and shinier comes along. Abandon books often enough and it will become a bad habit. Slog through finishing . . . .
On this blog, I tend to blather about process and life. But not often enough about discipline. I suppose it's because my life LOOKS undisciplined. It's messy around the edges, loud as the Clash blasting on my stereo, left-of-center, chaotic. But somewhere in that mess is a disciplined writer who has managed to write 20+ novels though four pregnancies and enough disaster and crisis for ten people. That takes tucking your head down, facing the wind, and just doing it.
Sometimes Shiny New Ideas get stuck in my head. But to really succeed, I always have to find the Middle Path. The Buddhist approach to writing. A balance between the worlds of discipline and creativity.
Thoughts?
25 comments:
I think most authors suffer from this at one time or another.
I think this is a sheep and goat problem, where wannabe authors can be separated into two groups; the ones who can't think of an idea and sustain it for 250 pages, and the others who are so flooded with ideas that they stray away from the process of finishing one before being swept down stream to bluer waters.
As a bottomlist author, there are the occasions when I find myself floating in the deep blue sea.
Allen:
Good point. I had a writer friend who wrote nonfiction and did pretty well at it for a while. He really wanted to write a novel but said his life was "uninteresting" and the people he met and so on . . . nothing inspired that spark of an idea. I couldn't imagine. I have too many ideas, usually. But then I absolutely have to dig in and finish.
E
Discipline is my problem...but I try to rationalize that when I set aside my novel for two weeks or three (who me?) and write some other things, that I'll go back to it and it will be better - not that I'm avoiding the finish line.
Ya gotta believe.
Amy:
To the dungeon with you. LOL!
Actually, like you, I freelance write articles sometimes . . . And I also still do work as a book editor . . . and I am ghostwriting a big book right now. So some of those things take over for a bit, but the novels are my anchor. They're always there to return to.
E
Erica, the more you talk about your home, the more I want to snuggle up on your couch. :) Awesome review!
When I was deciding whether to continue on my other wip or start back up with my current one, the best advice I got was "focus on one or you'll just have a bunch of unfinished manuscripts" (or something to that affect). Clearly you don't have that problem, but i needed that reminder. I've stayed the course with this book despite wanting to play with the other one, and now it's almost finished.
Now if only I could have Shiny New Idea Syndrome. I haven't had a new idea since October.
Not just ANY Shiny New Idea, but a totally awesome, got a major hook/concept that I think ANY editor would want to at least look at, kick-butt idea.
Give me your Shiny New Idea, and you can keep working on the thriller. :)
When I get those shiny new ideas I write the blurb and maybe a few pages just to get it out of my head. They I can relax and go back to the WIP.
I think being disciplined enough to go back and do the rewrites is the hardest part. I always want to move on.
Melanie:
I tend to think you can't force a Shiny New Idea. But I had a dry spell recently and write a short story for fun. Kind of got me out of the doldrums.
E
Jude:
Not a chance. LOL! I "pitched" it to Oldest Daughter. She likes it a lot. And is a tough critic. :-)
E
Aimless:
I am finding the second draft is now where I do the bulk of the work. THAT'S a new phenomena for me.
E
I plead guilty. I've set aside works in progress to shamelessly hang out with the "shiny new" idea. It's like going steady for months; same old same old gets tiresome, and then BAM! along comes super-cute-relentless-new-hottie. Sometimes you can't help but LOOK. ;) I guess the middle ground is acknowledging that "looking" is okay - that we all do it at times, but stick with steady and figure out how to overcome the boredom.
Generally I'm resistant to Shiny New Ideas, or I go ahead and give myself permission to write a chapter or two to make sure they're not a mirage (because a lot of times they are). It would be rare for one to take over what I'm working on...
Except when, as you know, I get all Existential Angst-Ridden. In which case, Shiny New Ideas can be like dangling a dime bag in front of a recovering junkie. But I tend to be aware that if I'm going in that direction, there's something not quite right going on in my head anyway.
I will have a giant project done tomorrow (not the new business, but something else), so I'm hoping to carve out time to work on fiction again, because Plague of Stars has languished for the last 2 weeks.
I usually discover that my Shiny New Idea is already a really crappy Hollywood movie. :(
My favorite police procedural author, bar none, is Ed McBain. You always get what you pay for with Ed McBain. Some of his books are better than others, but over all these years, there's only one book I didn't think gave me my money's worth.
They say Ed McBain wrote up to the last day of his life. He was a great writer because of that combination of inspiration and discipline.
You strike me as that way too.
For struggling authors, McBain's focus is something to aspire to.
That was an excellent review!
Kath:
With the exception of one or two novels I've written, at SOME point, I loathe them all until I write my way out of it.
E
Mark:
I am hoping to have a big fiction push this week, too.
E
Jude:
LOL! No, this new idea has never been done before.
And man, it arrived fully formed.
E
Joe:
Fiction is both my job AND my passion. I'm lucky that way, I think, and hope to do it until the bitter end.
:-)
E
FF:
But funny first line! I saw that and almost spit out my coffee. A reader sent it to me. :-)
E
LOL @ Jude!
Great first line! And so true. My first thought, when I started it, was that if anyone could pull off making such a premise resound with real emotion, it was you. I'm so glad you wrote it!
"Slog through finishing" is so true. The last tenth is at least ten times harder to write than the whole book combined. Well, at least that's what it feels like now. I'm at the end of two stories. Ugh. I can't tell you how pretty Shiny New Idea looks about now. Although, sometimes, I hate to start Shiny New Idea because I don't want it to get un-shiny, tarnished. Because it will, and there will be slogging involved again, LOL. Have you ever felt like that?
Hey E, congrats on the big new shiny! Let's see, I must've heard a traumatized story or something early on in my writing world, because I'm a need-to-finish-gal. Whatever triggered it, I push through even when I feel the love shifting from shiny new idea to work!
There's one project I set aside, for good reasons, and I plan on saving the story one day. Just not now.
Spy:
THANKS!!
:-)
E
LaDonna . . .
I was a need-to-finish gal for a long time. Now, less so, since I sell on proposal . . . and some things simply don't get bought.
E
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