Endless Quest or Insanity?
It is beyond me how one small activity, one small joy in my life can be so darned frustrating. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE writing. I love creating the characters, the stories, I love working through plots and sub-plots and describing in words what I used to imagine when I read.
But the process is a long one, and a very tedious one. In the creative writing classes I took, we were told,
“Write the story. Don’t edit, don’t go back – just write it from start to finish. Then worry about editing.”
WELL! It is much easier said than done. As I work on my recent brilliant story – and one that I hope I will finish – I find myself reliving the same chapter over and over again. In my head, the thought is that I MUST have it right before I can continue. That if this one chapter is not perfect, I can’t continue the story as this one chapter sets the tone. So, I edit and edit and edit again until I think I have it right.
Only recently did my writing move from a part-time hobby, taking up little of my time in a one week span and saunter itself into a more permanent position within my busy daily schedule. Somehow, managing to work itself in between the Figure Skating and Tae Kwon Classes, homework, housework and yes, even sleep, taking up residence and filling in what ever “extra” time I might have.
I MUST be insane to add one more task, one more item to this busy schedule. Only people with a passion for something do crazy stuff like that! It can’t be me! A passion for writing? I have never had a passion for anything – save raising my daughter – in my life!
But as I have now come to understand that passion and insanity go hand in hand, I also understand why a writer is never happy with his work, that we never stop wanting to edit and re-work our stories. Now – I understand that writing that perfect story, creating that perfect scene and molding the perfect characters is an Endless Quest.
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