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Behind the Curtain
Nov. 24th, 2009 07:52 amI find it interesting how the different writers I know deal with the creative process of having a work-in-progress. The enjoyment I get out of reading of their writing blocks, travails, agonies over rough draft issues and chapter by chapter "this one is done, now how will I ever manage the other?" posts in some ways make me feel like a hypocrite, for if their writing transparency is such an encouragement to me as I also struggle along, why don't I do the same?
I seem to be one of those who holes up like a hermit and likes to keep the work of art hidden under a cloth until I can do a Great Reveal at the end. Most of it, upon pondering, isn't from secretiveness or perfectionism so much as fear of disappointing people. If I ramble about "maybe X will happen" and someone gets hopeful they will enjoy a read about X and then I decide "Naahhh... doesn't really fit. Z will happen instead," it seems I've let them down. Every tale is so filled with potential cul-de-sacs and abandoned alternate routes and dead-ends, sometimes they transmogrify into something entirely different than I first expected.
Probably has something to do with why I freeze up if someone watches over my shoulder while I'm typing, too.
Are you a 'share every agony of the road' writer, or a 'ta-da! This is why I've been missing for the past two months' writer? Or somewhere in-between? Is your Muse a loner or a socialite?
I seem to be one of those who holes up like a hermit and likes to keep the work of art hidden under a cloth until I can do a Great Reveal at the end. Most of it, upon pondering, isn't from secretiveness or perfectionism so much as fear of disappointing people. If I ramble about "maybe X will happen" and someone gets hopeful they will enjoy a read about X and then I decide "Naahhh... doesn't really fit. Z will happen instead," it seems I've let them down. Every tale is so filled with potential cul-de-sacs and abandoned alternate routes and dead-ends, sometimes they transmogrify into something entirely different than I first expected.
Probably has something to do with why I freeze up if someone watches over my shoulder while I'm typing, too.
Are you a 'share every agony of the road' writer, or a 'ta-da! This is why I've been missing for the past two months' writer? Or somewhere in-between? Is your Muse a loner or a socialite?
