On Having Faith, and One Year on Live Journal

[hobgoblinn]

"There will be no having of any kind....."

Yes, well. It's been a year since I joined this great whirligig of fun known as Live Journal (and other, less complimentary names, depending on its behavior and my flist's moods). If I haven't thanked you folks recently for your entertaining posts, comments, friendship and support lately, shame on me. Thanks, everyone.

And a special Happy Birthday to the great and wonderful gileswench, whose natal day this also happens to be!

I should try to post something slightly profound today, given the significance of the date. Well, okay, how about this: what I'm really thinking about today is how we go about launching ourselves into the telling of tales. To get an idea and post a start to a story takes a tremendous amount of faith as a writer. (Or maybe that would be temporary insanity. I'm not clear on that point.)

To start reading a WIP takes a tremendous amount of faith too, as a reader. I can't count (not being a math major) the number of times I've started reading a brilliantly written and conceived story-- that stalls. The Transformations Quartet springs to mind. So does liz_marcs's "Water Hold Me Down" (possibly the best title I've ever seen. Not to mention a damn good story.) I've had some stalled tales, myself, most notably my first novel, started in grad school and then abandoned for over 20 years. Still have no idea how it ends.

I've got a couple of WIPs I'm working on now, including the Nano06 novel. But here's the weird part-- every single time I pick up my pen or my laptop, after a tale has stalled, and somehow new stuff comes to me, I'm surprised.

It's like, I struggle so hard to write a scene, and nothing comes, and then one day, for no reason at all, something clicks, and I write it. It's not Hemingway, but it's also usually not bad. At least, I can work with it. It's devilishly hard to edit what's not written, after all.

I invite you to share your moments of grace, if you care to. Or those of you with seriously stalled fics-- how did those start for you? What were you working out with them at the time, and what's changed since? I'd love to see liz answer that-- almost asked on her journal today, but didn't want to seem to be pressuring her. I know real life plays a role-- you can't receive the inspiration if you're too exhausted at the end of the day to write it all down.

And I will share one more bit of thanks. Doubtless she's regretting her generosity now that she's slogged through the start of the Nano Novel, but gillo has graciously agreed to beta it for me. I am learning a great deal about my bad habits, how to avoid them, and how in general to be a better beta reader myself. Watch this space. Once I have a completed draft, I'm going to take her early comments to heart, fix what can be fixed, and start posting.

Thanks again to all, and good night.

Hob

Comments

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember this, and remember liking it. Haven't been able to read through it all again, thanks to my Internetz drama. I will try to get back to it when I'm online again at home. And need distraction from the beta pain. It's a good pain, but still....