The Missing Piece (That Does or Does Not Belong)

One of the wonderful (and trying) things about being a writer is that a story is wholly yours. From the moment you put words on a page to the imaginings of your brain and the typing of that very last word, you've created something and it's yours to do what you will. Every detail and sentence is crafted by you and yours is the imagination running the show.

Then you edit and those details are tightened up; things are smoothed out, linked together and hopefully coherent. Then you edit again and everything is made more pristine and closer to your vision. Perhaps you've told people about your story, run the idea past them, or even shared a sample. Maybe you've shared the whole thing. Either way, something happens that changes your perspective. The scenes and dialogue that lined up before are now incongruous. Some of it's irrelevant and you come to the realization that your perfect piece has flaws.

At this point you might feel less motivated and dejected that something so sparkling could become so dull. It's a rude awakening, like a siren that cuts through the early morning quiet at 3AM. So you wake up. What do you do?

You reimagine. You rework. You create something new again, but not completely. It's a snip there, patch it up. A snip over there and patch it up. The story becomes tailored again to fit snugly around its skeleton and maybe you're feeling a little proud (and exhausted) as things come together.

Then you come to another part and you've thought that all major changes have been made, but this isn't fitting right. So you imagine, come up with something else, you go to patch it in and realize, well...it doesn't fit. Shoot. You read over it and read it again. You think if I just change that sentence, or maybe I'll just cut that, but then...

It just won't fit. There is no simple way to patch it in. You're going to have to restructure everything.
Well, shoot.

I'm wracking my brain right now, but this is the point I'm at. I want this new detail to go in, but it's not fitting and I've been turning it every which way. This can be one of the most frustrating parts about writing. Everyone loves a good story. We want our work to be good, but there are imperfections. And I'm a perfectionist, which means you know these changes are going to happen, but I'm dragging my feet.

I wanted to believe that I had already added the necessary elements, then I get hit with this. I am complaining a bit, because it feels unfair. But as I learned from a tender age (from the mouth of my kindergarten teacher), "life's not fair" and to complete that statement: "and the sooner she learns that the better off she'll be." Well, Ms. Mary, this is unfair, but I'm going to do something about it.

I am going to decide whether I want this or not and if I do, then I'm going to be creating a Draft 4 and integrating this in, even if I have to tear up a ton of great things in the process.

Tell me about a time in your life when you came to a realization that something wasn't working and it just felt unfair. I would love to hear your stories and how you acted when confronting it.

All the Way or Not at All?

A few weeks ago, I focused on shooting for dreams and I'm going to continue that theme with a focus on this quote: "If you're not going to go all the way, why go at all?" A bit darker and more ultimatum-y but that's the point. Dreams are hard to hold onto and they can change. Maybe we set our expectations lower. Maybe we learn that's not what we really wanted after all.

The key factor is You. What will you do?

In case it's hard to read the small cursive print.
This page of a coloring book says,
"Everybody wants happiness,
nobody wants pain,
but you can't have a rainbow
without a little rain."

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

But to expand on this quote of going all the way, I see it as this: Put effort into what you love and what you want. Half-hearted attempts are going to demoralize you. There are so many paths for us to walk on, but you can't take all of them or else you'll never get anywhere.

I've seen this happen with many people in my life. It happens to me. There are these opportunities and passions that we pour ourselves into and then we turn around and say we didn't really want that anyway. Why did we turn around?

I think there are two reasons:

1. An obstacle pops up
2. We realize what we really want