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“I saw this incident as a rare and glittering piece of evidence that all my most outlandish beliefs about creativity might actually be true - that ideas are alive, that ideas do seek the most available human collaborator, that ideas do have a conscious will, that ideas do move from soul to soul, that ideas will always try to seek the swiftest and most efficient conduit to the earth (just as lightning does).”
Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert
Last Christmas, I treated myself to a mug that spoke to my storyteller’s heart, with one of my favourite animals (a wolf) perched atop a quote I’d never seen before: "Stories are wild creatures."
(This is from a particularly creepy novel, I've discovered, by Patrick Ness: A Monster Calls. I'll just be over here with my Irish contemporary romance ...)
Anyhow, that quote felt like such an apt description for something that often seems to be just out of reach.
We can have the most flexible schedule, the most inspiring space, the most encouraging support network, and the most helpful writing books, and still draw a blank because our story refuses to cooperate.
There’s an episode of Heartland where Amy, a teenage horse whisperer, frets over the fact that her horse Spartan will no longer jump, something he used to love. A wise mentor tells her, “I don’t jump when people ask me to, either.”
Amy finally rekindles their shared passion for jumping by riding bareback, dropping the reins, closing her eyes, and trusting Spartan to carry them safely around the jumping ring ... which he does, in splendid fashion.
I think one of the worst things we can do as writers is try and force a story onto the page in exactly the way we see it in our minds. Putting in the work is crucial but, if we get too pushy, we’ll miss out on those magical twists and turns a story can take when we let it.
This doesn’t mean we need to back off entirely, or let it ride roughshod over all our ideas. We still need to show up. We still need to forge a partnership. We still need to eke words out of our minds, onto the page. We still need to make sure that things don’t go off the rails just because we’re bored and want to try something new.
Everything should be in service to the story that’s taken root in our hearts. Whether you believe it’s something that comes from inside you or something gifted from the cosmos, the result is the same: a story needs to be nurtured, and welcomed, and allowed to be wild.
The best stories, after all, are not tamed; they’re unleashed.
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A writing prompt just for you ...
Sometimes a powerful scene comes about not through a character’s connection with someone else but their connection with an object. Consider things like Lorelai’s dollhouse in Gilmore Girls, one of the only positive connections to her childhood, or the Marauder’s Map in Harry Potter, which linked him to the father he'd never had a chance to know. In my current work-in-progress, it's a notebook with a hodgepodge of recipes and a half-finished business plan Alice's mum never saw through.
Once you know what the object is, tap into its creative power by:
- breaking/destroying/mucking it up, accidentally or on purpose, and seeing how that affects your character
- considering how your character got the object originally
- bringing another part of the connection into play (e.g. the person who gave them the object in the first place)
- exploring how your character’s feelings about the object have changed over time
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Things that got me thinking ...
" 'Women are having different fantasies': romantic fiction in the age of Trump:" This is both a fascinating summary of how romantic fiction has evolved over time and a thought-provoking breakdown on how writers are approaching it, going forward. As both a reader and writer of romantic fiction, it gave me a lot to chew on.
How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are: Love, Style, and Bad Habits: Reading this has been a great reminder that I don't have to agree with everything an author says to find a book laugh-out-loud funny and inspiring. Written by four Parisian women who have been friends for years, How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are is a delightful read (and I'm only partway through) that has a real slice-of-life feel, and that's something I find incredibly helpful as a writer. |
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Can you believe we're almost halfway through March? Yoiks! It feels like this year is flying by. I'm currently surrounded by library books, Tarot cards, a French press with a knitted Dalek cosy, and the contents of a stationery care package from an amazing friend, so I'm definitely feeling some good, albeit slightly hectic, vibes. I think it's time to plan how I'd like the rest of the month to go and what I'd like to accomplish with my writing!
Here's to a strong creative partnership between us and our stories! Happy writing!
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