Getting It Done

http://www.jenebeal.com/

What is the most important aim when you start writing the story?  Yes, you want to tell a story.  Yes, you may have a point to make.  However, the most important part about starting a story, is to finish it. 

When I wrote my first novel, it took me ten years to put an ending on it.  I worked on it at least 3 out of the 7 days of the week.  When I wrote, I would be writing for 3 or 4 hours at a time.  I almost never had any problem coming up with something to write, though I did have some days when I didn’t like what I wrote or couldn’t think of anything worthwhile to write about that particular story. 

So, why did it take so long to write that first story?  In the beginning, I would write 10 - 50 pages, then I would read and re-read what I had written.  I could never make it perfect, though I kept trying.  I would change, rewrite, change and rewrite, until sometimes I lost the story I had started with.  Eventually I got frustrated.  I nearly gave up. 

Then I found out that my father was going in for an operation.  I suppose that it caused me to look at my life and the temporary nature of it.  It occurred to me that unless I focused on the work, I would never get anything done.  The weekend before my father was to face the knife, I went camping with my family.  While there, I set my mind to write as fast as I could.  I wrote during the daylight hours.  I wrote by lantern light after dark.  I worked well into two nights of my four-night camp, and finally I finished the story. 

I timidly presented my handwritten work for my father to read while he was recuperating.  I knew that it was far from perfect.  He seemed to think that it was as good as anything else he had read, perhaps even better than most.  I later sent it off to a sister-in-law who typed it.  She also enjoyed it.  Since then, I have edited, rewritten and adjusted the story slightly.  It is pretty much the same story now, as it was the day I finished it. 

The point is, you will never have a story, until you write it to the end.  Once you finish it, you can spend all the rest of your life changing, adjusting or rewriting it if you choose, but the important thing is the story will be written. 

I have met several people who get a good start, but spend the rest of the time starting over again.  Or they fret over the fact that it is not perfect.  Guess what?  I’ve written over 40 80-100,000 word stories now, and every time I read through one of them, I find a billion things to change.  The fact is, an artist is never really satisfied.  Art is subjective.  Our minds see it differently, as we look at it from different angles.  At some point we need to decide to move on.  We have to call the work done, and get started on the next project that will drive up the wall.

Starting and ending a story is easy for me now.  The hard part is the editing and deciding between the point where I’ve created art or have gone too far or not far enough and created a distortion of my art.  Most times I have found that the original inspiration is the closest to what I want.

Whatever you want to do is up to you, but for me, once I start, my goal is to finish.

I hope someone might find my experiences helpful.

Until next time, Jene

Purposeful Interruptions

I have a friend who tells me that writing is a lonely job.  Though I really never feel lonely, I will say that my days are quiet and sometimes I find myself making calls to family members, even when there is nothing pressing to call about.  My wife thought I might get lonely during the day, so she got me a dog.  The dog is deaf and she does a lot of what she wants to.  Most of the time she is trying to force me to play ball with her, just as I find myself right in the middle of the most important parts of the story.  (Of course, each paragraph seems to be equally as important.)  She only does this about three or four times an hour.  Needless to say, she spends more time outside than she would like to.   

That being said, I find myself eating better, making regular trips to the restroom and even doing some of the other things from my "TO DO" list during those interruptions.  I suppose we all need some way to stay on track.  A timer or alarm clock might be easier to take those breaks, but if you are having trouble getting away from your writing before it’s past your bed time, then you might consider getting a dog to drop her ball on your keyboard from time to time.

Until next time,

Jene.