Tuesday's Inspiration -- Courage and Creativity

Is the writer a rebel. This doesn't mean going out and trying to take over a country or even a small place. What it means is that the artist seeks to explore chaos and make order of what they find. It also means passion creeps into a story. Sometimes the writer doesn't even realize they have written in this fashion, they are just exploring. Take a mystery writer. They may not realize how deep their passion is for justice. Or the romance writer for happy endings. But before they write the story, they must enter chaos and pull what truths they can discover there. Relationships between people always have a bit of chaos at the bottom.

Understanding or the desire to understand is what propels the writer as a rebel. In this understanding there is joy. Writing brings the joy of creating and the joy of finding a piece drawn from chaos.

This bit is short probably because I'm still digging into a bit of chaos called life.

A bit of Inspiration

I did a bit on plotting last Friday but while reading On Becoming an Author, John Gardner, I read a sentence that resonated with me. "Plot is not a series of surprises, but a series of recognitions or moments of understanding." Sometimes when writing and struggling to get the words on paper, I know there are moments when I suddenly see what I was meaning to say. That often means going back and removing a scene or a short passage that jumped in when it brought no understanding to what I was meaning to say.

Sometimes the writer knows what they mean but they've managed to obscure the understanding from the reader. Not letting the reader know what's coming and blindsiding them can make them turn away from the story. Try to think of the reader as a partner and let them in on the secrets you hold from the characters. Leave the surprises for the characters to reach a moment of recognition or understanding.