Thinking back over the years I’ve been pounding away at the keyboard (at the beginning I actually typed stories on Dad’s old police-issue Remington. It wasn’t pretty), got me thinking about moments of key realisation in the writing craft.
I guess for me the first one of these points would have to be understanding the need for true inventiveness. As for most writers, when I started off I wanted to recreate what I loved in fiction. In this case, sword-and-sorcery in a fairly familiar fantasy setting. My first ‘aha’ – triggered by the advice of a more experienced writer – was understanding the need to be original in the worlds I created. That more than anything shaped my later work.
Following that was less of an ‘aha’ I suppose than a gradual understanding of point of view. Again, like most newbies, there was plenty of head-hopping in my early efforts, although to be fair this was more common in the sort of work that was inspiring me than what is on the shelves these days.
Then the sinking realisation that being as good as what has gone before is not good enough – the writing craft moves on.
Next was probably the daunting realisation that just because I was feeling something when I wrote and/or re-read a particular passage of my own work did not mean anyone else would. That opened up a whole issue of writing craft – kind of like realising the solid bridge you were standing on was really a tightrope over an abyss. Evoking something in a reader’s mind was a lot harder than I thought.
There were plenty of others: active Vs passive, ‘show don’t tell’ , ‘direct’ experience through the use of physical sensations in a character, the ever-present struggle to create emotional resonance in the reader.
What were your ‘aha’ moments?
Cross-posted at chrismcmahons blog.
Mad Genius Club 
14 responses to “Aha! Moments in Writing”
Oh dear. I still remember that moment when I realized THERE’S NO PROBLEM TO SOLVE! Just building cool worlds and running fun characters around in them doesn’t work. I _still_ have a bit of that issue. The main story problem is the last part of the whole idea that I “get”. Characters, no problem, world, Oooo! Fun! But at least I now know, and get to it pretty quickly.
Hi, Pam. I remember at the beginning how much geeky fun it was just to invesnt characters and have them walk around. Like 3D role playing. It was joyful and kind of innocent.
With the overarching story conflict or problem, I’ve often been able to tease that out of the characters. I might start with a very vague sence of them, then as I flesh them out – usually by exploring backstory – I get an idea of their lives and challenges & the wider conflict often seems to emerge from that.
What a wonderfully complex thing writing is:)
I seem to get the characters or the idea. I’d like to start getting both together.
My biggest “aha”: realizing my first drafts didn’t have to be perfect. My productivity soared after that.
Oh yeah. There’s that “Finish it first, then go back and fix it” thing we all had to learn.
Yes, focusing on word count in that first draft allows you to ignore issues of quality which seem to get in the way of production. Or, at least agonizing about them does.
I still struggle with that ‘inner critic’. Especially if I go from final drafting to first drafting. I really need to reiterate to myself ‘just let it flow – don’t think too much!’ Even then I struggle not to keep bouncing back to fix things. I find giving myself an hourly goal is the best way to let myself off the hook – less pressure than a word count & let’s me sit and ponder the new world a bit:)
Mine was that there has to be a big failure first. I was a teen reading some series of sword and sorceress books, and lots of the stories were flat for some reason. I finally realized they had a problem, solved it, the story ended and I felt no suspense. When I figured it out, I went aha! Some might call this formulaic. Others call it vital. Every Star Trek episode I ever saw had it.
Hi, Laura. That’s a real plotter Vs panster thing isn’t it? I more in the plotter category. I’ve read some short stories that people absolutely rave about, but apart from the hook all they have is atmosphere, an interesting character and the sniff of a whiff of an implication that something might happen – then they just end. I find that pretty frustrating!
“the sniff of a whiff”–love it!
And, a more recent aha moment I had was that I wished I’d read Dwight Swain about five years ago.
Yes! I have dozens of writing books, and “Techniques of the Selling Writer” is the only one that I’ve read more than once (four times to be exact). Turned me from a typist into a storyteller. 🙂
Thanks, guys. Another one for the reading list!
He’s quite meticulous about what to do. I’m about to sit down with my latest draft and check it against all his requirements from “Techniques.” Also, I was reading his book on characters, and his observation that at some point the characters need to find themselves “in the soup” made me realize why I was stuck on a short story. It needed soup. Voila, I got soup.
He’s a good one to read after you’ve been plugging away at things for a while because then you understand him better. But I could have stood to read him much sooner.