Discover the Story

I love to write.
Hmmm. Now begins a small rant about writing:

I think that writing is at its best when the writer steps back and says, "Wow, there it goes."
By that I mean a writer feels that their story has grown legs and started walking on its own. Maybe they're chasing after a little book baby and watching it grow older and more mature. I enjoy writing and being surprised.

I was talking to one of my friends, he is a creative writing major and loves poetry, and I explained that what I loved most was when the characters were alive and I wasn't creating the story - I was discovering it. The difference is that discovery feels like it was always there, but now you're navigating this land. It's not totally discovery all the time, sometimes a story or character needs some creation to begin with, but once it gets rolling, the story should be showing you how it is written.

The fun part comes in when you get to see interactions and reactions of characters. Once they have been developed to an extent, you just know how they'll react, and maybe they'll surprise you occasionally, but you should know why that happens. See, the thing with discovering is that you're not blind - you're omniscient, you see all and you know all, so those little side stories and small things you thought didn't need to be explained - well, they can and you should know them (even if you don't write anything). The story is about more than what is just on the page, but it is also more than just what is in your head too. There has to be a balance between what the writer knows and what the reader knows. If you don't give enough to the reader, then they could come away confused and dissatisfied with your story. If you don't know enough about your story, then you'll end up with a mess that has to be untangled and things that deviate so much it can't be explained.

Writing isn't without its struggles, but I hope you can see that it has its benefits too.