The Arrow and the Song
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
I was chatting with a dear friend on Facebook. She has the beginning and ending of her WIP. I have the middle of mine all planned out, but have rewritten the beginning more than a few times, and have no clue how this thing is going to end up.
I have decided to stop rewriting the beginning.
It may not be perfect or final, but I need to let it go.
Part of the fun in writing is having the characters surprise me, so I am going to stop fretting about how to end this piece.
Unconscious competence seems so elusive. I am going to continue writing with conscious incompetence…but STOP worrying about it. It is the only way I am going to be able to proceed. I wrote my last book with unconscious competence, on talent and what skill I had at the time, and did fairly well with it.
I have no clue what I am going to do with this WIP. It is a story that I wish to tell. I know that many say you have to keep in mind that you are writing for a reader audience, and I appreciate my audience, truly I do. On the other hand, when I get myself wrapped up in what others might think, I lose the ability to write freely.
So I am writing this one for me, freely, come what may of it.
Penny for your thoughts!
S.K. Nicholls 
Sometimes you just have to go and see what happens with a story. Even if you don’t get exactly what you want, you’re bound to get something useful.
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Thanks Charles. I have spent far to much time and energy fretting over mechanics and execution…to the point where I have been unable to write freely. Damn the rules. I am just writing.
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Good plan. Mechanics and tightening can wait for the editing stage.
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Pantsers rule!
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Oh yeah!
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While I think it’s important to consider your readers, their interests should not dictate how or what you write. Maybe I’m naive, but I think if you’re writing for yourself, your readers will enjoy that too.
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That’s a positive way to look at things. Sort of how I did last time but with more effort at developing a novel format. Maybe I will soar with the eagles at some point….when I am writing with unconscious competence…but I will never know if I don’t write freely now.
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You have to write how ever feels right to you on any given project, or you won’t be likely to finish it (and I’m speaking a collective ‘you’ here). If we don’t derive joy from what we’re working on or have it excite us in any way, then there’s not much point in pursuing it. Of course, I’m not talking about the final editing stages. Once we get there, we just have to buck up and do it. 🙂
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It is the joy in it that I had begun to loose trying to fit it into a mold. I enjoy writing when I don’t fret so over the execution. Also, the passion I feel for a project is greater when I let it flow freely and don’t worry so much about what I am going to have to edit later.
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Nice thoughts. I try to keep a tight outline and the characters still surprise me sometimes. I’ve found it’s best to go with it and change the outline.
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I agree. i usually have a rough outline on how I want the story to proceed, even if only in my head. With this work though, I have a very loose ending in mind. That left me with a great deal of anxiety that turned into apathy, so I decided to let the passion for writing override and see where it takes us. Who knows? It might be my best work yet!
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Such things work well. Sometimes it leads to a bit of rewriting, but so what. If you wind up with something better it’s worth it.
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I always believe any writing is a good thing. Work it in later.
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Thanks John. Nobody can enjoy a story that has not been written.
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so true.
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The only person you can ever write for is yourself.
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That’s what i am doing now. I don’t know what will become of of it. But I am back to writing for the fun of it.
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Everything good can come with persistence which sometimes means leaving behind something knotty for a time and moving on with something new. Incidentally, my work-around for not getting posts from Blogs like yours I follow – Entering them in Bloglovin and retrieving them from there.
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Its the same old WIP, just a new approach. There have been a lot of posts reblogged lately about bloglovin stealing content and syndicating posts without permission. I’ll try to find a link and email it to you. Many are up in arms about it. They are also forcing advertisements. I try to avoid the controversy.I don’t even use Google Plus.
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It sounds like you’re doing the right thing. Sometimes you just have to write–and then go back and clean it up later. I know sometimes when I’m writing and the words are not there–then I go and do something else, like take a warm shower, and suddenly I know exactly how I want to say it. It’s a story you want to tell, so you have to get it out. Then you can worry about it later–or not. 😉 Good luck!
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exactly, or not.
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Haha. Yes. Hopefully you will be happy either way!
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You need to be comfortable with how you write, and sometimes you just got to get it down and worry about the other stuff later. It can become too easy to get overwhelmed with trying to make everything ‘right’, you can forget to have fun with just writing 🙂
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Having fun with it is my new goal.
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Stop molding and just write it all down first. 🙂
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The best part about that first draft is not having to worry about revision. I enjoy the act of writing that first copy without the tyranny of analysis weighing down my joy; I tear it apart once I’ve got the entire work down first.
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Seems that’s the consensus. I feel better just letting go mentally. Already this work is progressing.
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I hope you’re having fun, too! 🙂
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We can’t always worry about what others may think. You can not make a book you are reading go the way you want it to go either. Someone will always be disappointed no matter what. You have to be happy with what you write.
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Most of my stall was related to forcing technical mechanics of writing a certain way. I learned I can’t do that and be happy.
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