Was Big Magic right all along?
You know that saying about buses? That's how my blog posts are right now. You don't see one for ages and then they all come at once. That's how my brain has been working lately. Sometimes I could just write post after post after post and I stop myself before I burn out. Other times I want to write and the time ticks on and on and nothing happens. Sometimes something else spurs me on such as seeing a blog post from another creator I haven't seen post in a while, or something particularly interesting like a topic discussed over coffee. Often what spurs me on is procrastination.
Oh here we go again. She's using the P word again.
Yes I am unfortunately! But we aren't going to dwell on it today. Instead we're going to talk about Big Magic.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear is a book by Elizabeth Gilbert which I read at the very beginning of last year. The first of the 4 only books I read in 2017 to be exact. It has some interesting concepts on how ideas have lives of their own but to be honest I didn't gel with it too much. There was something she said that got me thinking though. She talked about how if an idea is left for too long it will find someone else to execute it. Someone else who has the time or the resources to nuture it into being the best that it can be.
I won't lie. At the time I probably wasn't in the best mind frame to be reading that book and only rated it 2/5 stars and didn't even take the time to write a review properly. If you look on Big Magic's Goodreads page there are people singing it's praises and condemning it every other review so it really seems to be a love/hate book.
But I have to say that thought has stuck with me. At the time I disregarded it. I have had friends who have left projects of all kinds for years only to come back, dust them off and make them beautiful. Yet, I never have. A few years ago there was a story that came to mind. It made my brain buzz with excitement and I was itching to write it. Yet the task of doing so was daunting. There was so much research to be done, plot holes that needed to be filled and the very fabric of the story slowly stitched together one fibre at a time. I wrote a couple thousand of words at best on that story. I held those characters dear to me but always worried how people would perceive them. Were they too cliche? Was my portrayal of these characters offensive when I didn't have the personal experience to solidify their beings? What was I going to do with them? I chatted with my friend Jenn about them several times over several months and she adviced me with her own writer's knowledge.
Sometimes once time has passed and your perspective has changed you can give a story new life. Sometimes too much has changed and it feels like I'm trying to put the pieces from 2 puzzles together - the pieces don't fit like they should. Sadly, my passion for my characters has fizzled. It's like I don't understand them anymore and the spark to write them is gone. I've tried several times to revive them. I've read what I did write over and over again but the writer's block still stands.Everything I add is irrelevant or poorly fitting or makes more holes that it seems tampering with it further is just damaging it more. Perhaps Big Magic was right. Perhaps the idea has floated away and is now with someone else. Maybe one day I'll pick up a YA book and see them nestled inside. Their names may have changed, their identities shifted and remoulded but deep down a part of me will know it's them.
I want to see them out in the world. Yet I do feel a sadness from losing them. Maybe in a few years they'll revisit but if they don't that will be fine too.
Has anyone else experienced this when writing?
Please do let me know,
Sophie
Oh here we go again. She's using the P word again.
Yes I am unfortunately! But we aren't going to dwell on it today. Instead we're going to talk about Big Magic.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear is a book by Elizabeth Gilbert which I read at the very beginning of last year. The first of the 4 only books I read in 2017 to be exact. It has some interesting concepts on how ideas have lives of their own but to be honest I didn't gel with it too much. There was something she said that got me thinking though. She talked about how if an idea is left for too long it will find someone else to execute it. Someone else who has the time or the resources to nuture it into being the best that it can be.
I won't lie. At the time I probably wasn't in the best mind frame to be reading that book and only rated it 2/5 stars and didn't even take the time to write a review properly. If you look on Big Magic's Goodreads page there are people singing it's praises and condemning it every other review so it really seems to be a love/hate book.
But I have to say that thought has stuck with me. At the time I disregarded it. I have had friends who have left projects of all kinds for years only to come back, dust them off and make them beautiful. Yet, I never have. A few years ago there was a story that came to mind. It made my brain buzz with excitement and I was itching to write it. Yet the task of doing so was daunting. There was so much research to be done, plot holes that needed to be filled and the very fabric of the story slowly stitched together one fibre at a time. I wrote a couple thousand of words at best on that story. I held those characters dear to me but always worried how people would perceive them. Were they too cliche? Was my portrayal of these characters offensive when I didn't have the personal experience to solidify their beings? What was I going to do with them? I chatted with my friend Jenn about them several times over several months and she adviced me with her own writer's knowledge.
Sometimes once time has passed and your perspective has changed you can give a story new life. Sometimes too much has changed and it feels like I'm trying to put the pieces from 2 puzzles together - the pieces don't fit like they should. Sadly, my passion for my characters has fizzled. It's like I don't understand them anymore and the spark to write them is gone. I've tried several times to revive them. I've read what I did write over and over again but the writer's block still stands.Everything I add is irrelevant or poorly fitting or makes more holes that it seems tampering with it further is just damaging it more. Perhaps Big Magic was right. Perhaps the idea has floated away and is now with someone else. Maybe one day I'll pick up a YA book and see them nestled inside. Their names may have changed, their identities shifted and remoulded but deep down a part of me will know it's them.
I want to see them out in the world. Yet I do feel a sadness from losing them. Maybe in a few years they'll revisit but if they don't that will be fine too.
Has anyone else experienced this when writing?
Please do let me know,
Sophie
Comments
Post a Comment