When I think of putting pen to paper I imagine the ink running smoothly across the page in an elegant flow like water running off a rock. Yet sometimes when you sit down to write, whether it be a poem, short story or any other creative work the water unfortunately may not run just so smoothly.
Finding ideas can be easy, or at least that's one part of writing that I find the easiest, you can come across an idea at any time, sometimes in the most random places or situations. I find it similar to having a picture in your mind and then trying to draw and paint it but once you start to draw it it never or rarely comes out the way you imagined. Instead the picture in your mind looks like something professional and what you've actually drawn looks like a six year old drew it. When writing I sometimes feel this happens; I have a master plan and begin writing. I then reread my work and cannot believe how far it is from my original idea.
Writing is a journey and it can take you down different paths, ones you may not have ever considered. The road can rocky, with unexpected curves, cracks and pot holes, but the one thing in writing that I force myself to do is to continue down the road, even if I don't know where it'll take me. Maybe it'll lead to great story or poem, maybe it'll be an epic fail but there's no way to know unless you carry on.
One thing I struggle with is the flow of words. When I get my ideas and begin to write, it's exciting, not really knowing if it'll work out or not, but sometimes when you get an idea and are trying to make it work the flow isn't smooth and the water instead falls through the cracks.
Writing and flow go together. It's like breathing, you inhale the idea and your exhale is the words coming out, flowing onto the page. But naturally we sneeze, cough and sometimes even choke uncontrollably.
I consider this quote when I get stuck in my writing.
"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart"
William Wordsworth
The road may be rocky, but one thing that we all do is continue breathing. So when stuck in writing, just breathe, in and out, in and out the words will come, the flow will be there, and never be afraid to fail. Breathe and your heart will release the words.
You're right, sometimes writing sucks and yet the only thing you can do is to keep writing. But then after you've had such a hard time trying to write and you do succeed, it feels amazing. Any kind of art comes from within ourselves, there is no tap out there that will someday "run out of water", we will always be able to write as long as we want to.
ReplyDelete-Victoria Mastropietro
I never thought of writing like breathing, but it kind of is. At least for me. I cannot remember one day where I haven't been lost in my own ideas for my stories. Yet when it comes to writing, it never comes as smoothly as thinking them do. I liked how you pointed out that we naturally have to sneeze, cough and choke because we have to have some epic fails with our writing or there's no way we can get any better. I also think, with writing being like breathing, is that you can't think about it too much. I don't know about you but I can't plan to write, I can't plan to put this word here and that there because it doesn't feel natural. Just like you can't plan to breathe every breath. I have let it flow because if i think to much, I'll choke. I really liked this because I related to it a lot and I think a lot of other people will too.
ReplyDelete-Isabel