You take the good, You take the bad
"You take them both and there you have, the facts of life. The facts of life."
Sorry. 80's television flashback.
But speaking of The Facts of Life, I bet no one knew that the show's theme song was co-written by Alan Thicke who is the father of Robin Thicke - oh he of the Pharrell produced joint, Wanna Love U Girl.
So I guess songwriting runs in the fam.
MTV Jams forced me to like Wanna Love U Girl. Literally, they played it like every half hour over the winter. Since I couldn't run from the song I ended up liking it, especially the remix with Busta Rhymes.
Okay, so that has nothing to do with today's blog post. But, you never know when you'll need such mindless trivia.
Fair warning, you will need such puffery if you ever come by my house and challenge me to a game of Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture. I am the Queen! of non-essential information.
No, what this post is about are the good and bad days of a writer.
Today was a good day. And not a moment too soon. I'm on a deadline.
Deadlines, by the way, are a double-edged sword for me. Without one, I'll ponder and lollygag all day long i.e. won't write. But once under one, the pressure to produce quality writing always sends me into a panic.
Yes, I know, I should seek therapy. But that's a post for another day.
About my good writing day...
It started Friday morning when I had a breakthrough. After six days of stumbling in darkness in the land of the Del Rio Bay Clique, I was finally able to see where the storyline for DON'T GET IT TWISTED needed to go.
Contrary to popular belief, breakthrough moments rarely happen out of the blue. Well, not for me, anyway. I poke, prod and cajole such moments out of myself by writing LOTS of bad passages.
Once you've decided that writing is how you're going to make your living, only writing when the muse hits or when you've had a breakthrough moment are great ways to end up starving or homeless.
Writers must produce more regularly than a muse will allow, which is why it takes a crapload of bad writing to get to the good. Consider it a necessary evil.
Once you come to terms with that, your life becomes much easier...well, truthfully it doesn't. It still pains me to read over something and know it's bad. But bad writing is better than a blank page.
You can usually fix bad writing. You can't fix nothing.
Up until Friday, I was writing passages I knew would not see the light of day beyond my own PC monitor.
But thanks to that exercise I finally shoveled my way out of a pile of mediocre scribblings to see exactly where the character was heading.
I know, to call it an "exercise" makes it seem deliberate. As if I sit down and say to myself - "You know this is going to be bad, but write it anyway."
It's definitely not deliberate. I sit down attempting to write publishable passages. They just don't always end up that way without my muse whispering in the background.
Writing without my muse or a clear direction is hard. I practically get the shakes when I sit down to write blind. Which is my point.
For me, writing blind is the bad. Writing when Miss Thing-Thing, the muse, decides to show up, the good.
Writing drivel, some days, is the only path to a better story. I don't like it, but those are the facts of life.
Gah! I couldn't resist!
Sorry. 80's television flashback.
But speaking of The Facts of Life, I bet no one knew that the show's theme song was co-written by Alan Thicke who is the father of Robin Thicke - oh he of the Pharrell produced joint, Wanna Love U Girl.
So I guess songwriting runs in the fam.
MTV Jams forced me to like Wanna Love U Girl. Literally, they played it like every half hour over the winter. Since I couldn't run from the song I ended up liking it, especially the remix with Busta Rhymes.
Okay, so that has nothing to do with today's blog post. But, you never know when you'll need such mindless trivia.
Fair warning, you will need such puffery if you ever come by my house and challenge me to a game of Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture. I am the Queen! of non-essential information.
No, what this post is about are the good and bad days of a writer.
Today was a good day. And not a moment too soon. I'm on a deadline.
Deadlines, by the way, are a double-edged sword for me. Without one, I'll ponder and lollygag all day long i.e. won't write. But once under one, the pressure to produce quality writing always sends me into a panic.
Yes, I know, I should seek therapy. But that's a post for another day.
About my good writing day...
It started Friday morning when I had a breakthrough. After six days of stumbling in darkness in the land of the Del Rio Bay Clique, I was finally able to see where the storyline for DON'T GET IT TWISTED needed to go.
Contrary to popular belief, breakthrough moments rarely happen out of the blue. Well, not for me, anyway. I poke, prod and cajole such moments out of myself by writing LOTS of bad passages.
Once you've decided that writing is how you're going to make your living, only writing when the muse hits or when you've had a breakthrough moment are great ways to end up starving or homeless.
Writers must produce more regularly than a muse will allow, which is why it takes a crapload of bad writing to get to the good. Consider it a necessary evil.
Once you come to terms with that, your life becomes much easier...well, truthfully it doesn't. It still pains me to read over something and know it's bad. But bad writing is better than a blank page.
You can usually fix bad writing. You can't fix nothing.
Up until Friday, I was writing passages I knew would not see the light of day beyond my own PC monitor.
But thanks to that exercise I finally shoveled my way out of a pile of mediocre scribblings to see exactly where the character was heading.
I know, to call it an "exercise" makes it seem deliberate. As if I sit down and say to myself - "You know this is going to be bad, but write it anyway."
It's definitely not deliberate. I sit down attempting to write publishable passages. They just don't always end up that way without my muse whispering in the background.
Writing without my muse or a clear direction is hard. I practically get the shakes when I sit down to write blind. Which is my point.
For me, writing blind is the bad. Writing when Miss Thing-Thing, the muse, decides to show up, the good.
Writing drivel, some days, is the only path to a better story. I don't like it, but those are the facts of life.
Gah! I couldn't resist!
posted by Paula at 10:44 PM
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