I've always been a hungry consumer of advice about how to write but a reluctant practicioner of the same. Reading other writers' accounts of how they write was like writing except much, much easier. Those books are like candy to me: sweet, easy, and kind of addictive. (Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and Stephen King's On Writing remain my favorites, but I recently read a Kindle Single by Ann Patchett called The Getaway Car that was very good as well—I must have highlighed 60% of it.)
Anyway, most writers recommend freewriting as a way to get into your story, but until Week Five's challenge I had never done it. The thought of writing without a plan as to what I'm writing is terrifying for some reason, even though everyone and their third cousin agrees that it's so very productive.
Well, I thought Week Five turned out really well, so I finally strong-armed myself into trying this again for Week Six:
A journey into the psyche...
Could be a few things. Literal journey: kids' book or YA novel?
Or an exploratory essay/story about some aspect of the mind as it impacts one's life over the years: fear of the basement.
Could combine the two: child is terrified of basement, confronts colorful fears, finally embraces imagination.
Translation: For Week Six I had been considering two different approaches—an actual journey where the threats/rewards of the tangled psyche are literal (at least to the character), or a more real life exploration of how a certain fear/predjudice carries forward through the years.
And then I realized, not ten minutes into this exercise, that these ideas could be one: a children's book where the character must, metaphorically and literally, confront his or her fear of the basement.
(Though it is interesting that my "freewriting" is still, basically, planning. It takes time to unclench, okay?)
So this is the plan. I hope to have it finished by Sunday if not sooner!
Monday, July 16, 2012 at 9:19AM