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Listen Up

About three or four years ago I wrote a satirical happy-go-lucky essay in response to a slew of depressing high school-like fiction I was reading in my creative writing class. To do this I picked the cheesiest happy song I could find, Miley Cyrus's "Dream". Now, before I lose all my credibility as a person and writer, I want to say that this was more of an experiment than anything.

Before this essay I had scheduled my life so that when I had to write I could type out a complete draft in one sitting. This was getting less and less possible. I decided I would use this song as my anchor, play it (very) low in my headphones and see if by listening I could easily fall back into the voice I had started with. The funny thing was that it worked. I listened to the song about 400 times by the end of the final draft, but I hardly remember hearing anything.

Everyone is different, but if you find yourself having trouble getting back into a writing process after stepping away for a while try to create yourself an anchor. For me, it's music, but maybe there is something else you can do to help yourself pick up where you left off.

I've since learned that the qualities of the song don't really matter so long as the song or playlist remains the same. Basically, I could have spared myself the embarrassment of unintentional "Dream" hums in class, but in case you were curious, yes, I did listen to Miley while writing this post.

401.

Struggle Through It

Earlier this week I talked about how sometimes, as writers, we have to move on from an idea, but what happens during the initial idea phase when you have a really great thought, but you can't seem to get it on paper? In your head, the idea is flawless, but the connection between your brain and your hand seem to be severed or, at the very least, temporarily not on speaking terms.

There have been many times that I've struggled through my writing, but it seems that the more challenged I am by something, the better I do. Good writing takes work. Maybe on the first go around you just want to throw all your ideas out onto the page and worry about perfecting them later. Maybe you're like me and you watch the blinking line on your screen a thousand times before coming up with the perfect way to say something (which you will probably change later). Either way, struggling can be a good thing if it is the right kind of struggling. Let me explain what I mean.

When I good struggle it is because something I am writing is particularly challenging and in some way personal to me. I am struggling because in my mind I know exactly how the scene I am describing should feel to the reader, but I find it difficult to put into words. When I bad struggle it is because I am trying to make a story something that it is not. This mostly happens when I'm given a prompt that requires a certain ending (I hate these). As a writer, it is important to let your characters and conflicts drive the story, your hand should simply facilitate that process. When I try to take over, I bad struggle.

I think the most important thing is to remain self-aware. You have to know when you are struggling and why. If it is a bad struggle, move on and let the story do what it wants. If it is a good struggle, hold on, push through, and let the magic happen.

Move On

During pitch meetings it is really easy to get really excited about an idea. Sometimes, I'll be so confident in myself that I can't wait to share the brilliance that I've come up with, but sometimes, life can be humbling. I used to think the worst that could happen was negative feedback. I thought this until I went through a session with no feedback at all. When people give you feedback, even if it is negative, it can help form a new idea or strengthen an existing one. No feedback is the opposite. The white noise makes you feel like not only is your idea awful, but also that no one can come up with anything constructive to say about it. These are the moments that I truly experienced something my professor told  my class during his first lecture: Know when to move on. Sure, I'd like to think that I'm an idea superstar, and sometimes I might be, but half the battle is knowing what can be worked on, what can be saved for later, and what should just be thrown out.

For me, this time, it is back to the drawing board.