It seems that I've been in rather an introspective mood lately, and while sometimes uncomfortable, I feel my navel-gazing has uncovered several useful realizations about why I am the "unique" person I am, especially concerning why and how I want to write. But first, here's a mythology lesson!
Have you ever heard the name Zeus? You know: Greek guy, throws lightning bolts, does very strange things while wearing the forms of animals. Well, Zeus--father of the gods and of men, god of the sky and thunder--was very fond of procreating. He had several wives and consorts and ended up with over 60 children, and that's just counting the ones from his wives who were actually goddesses. One of Zeus's daughters, Athena, was purportedly born fully formed from Zeus's forehead (not something I ever want to experience as a father, by the way).
"What does this have to do with writing?" you may ask. "Greek mythology is so last decade!"
Have no fear. I'm not planning on competing with Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. (You were worried there for a second, weren't you Rick? :) ) As I was thinking last week about the story of Athena's birth, though, I realized that I keep believing that my stories will somehow leap from my mind and land in perfect, mature form on the page. My problem is compounded by the fact that my editing instincts kick in while I'm writing, causing me to revise and re-revise everything until I have it just the way I want. (You don't want to know how much time I spend poring over emails before I send them.) I expect some distant Muse to inspire me with a masterpiece that will flow unimpeded from my feverish fingertips and become an instant bestseller.
As I've intellectually known but for some reason have chosen to ignore, that's not how writing works, especially long-form pieces like the novels I hope to put together. Looking back at my "career" (and I use that term in the loosest interpretation possible) as a writer, I now see the same cycle repeated over and over again: 1) Locke gets an idea about a story. 2) Locke gives a half-hearted effort at researching and outlining the story. 3) Locke writes a couple of pages or chapters, as the mood strikes him. 4) Locke gets bored with the story or it otherwise falls apart. 5) Locke cans the story and moves on to another project. In case you haven't been keeping score at home, it's step 2 that appears to be the lynchpin in this progression. To be a successful writer ("successful" in the sense that I actually complete a writing project), I need to put a lot more work in on the back-end, the part that no one may ever see.
I've often thought that I can build just about anything if given the right pieces, but I've also put too much emphasis on having those pieces handed to me, I think. As an editor, I feel I have a good sense for what needs to be fixed in a written work. (I'm hoping my editing clients will agree.) I can generally tell what's gone wrong and will often have multiple suggestions on how to take care of the problem. But even though this part of the process is my forte, it doesn't matter much if I don't have the story pieces to work with. The difficult part of my own writing process is that I have to build the pieces myself, like casting my own Legos instead of just buying them. And that will take research, something that I don't generally have patience for. I'd much rather put words to page than spend my time figuring out how things work. Writing is fun; research is for nerds!
But as Ben Franklin said, "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." So I guess I'll be spending a good portion of my writing time outlining for the next while. At least brainstorming can be fun, too. :)
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