8 of 100 - Reflections on the First Week

"Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others."
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

This seems like a good night to reflect on this process so far. This might seem self-serving, but of course this entire endeavor is self-serving, as all writing should be. If writing is for any other purpose than to express and please the writer herself, it seems to ring hollowly to anyone who reads it. And it also becomes victim to the whims and tastes of others, as Virginia Woolf so poetically says in the above quote.

That said, one of the real benefits of this project is hearing how my writing is affecting those who read it. It is very interesting to hear and weigh the feedback I’m getting. After the first installment, I heard from a reader that I needed to let go more with the short sex scene and really give it some balls (pun fully intended). I heard the same night, from another reader, that the sex scene was probably too explicit and the language gratuitous. My answer is to make the sex scenes more explicit or less explicit when the story or piece warrants doing so, and to use the language I hear my characters using and the language my narrator, whether first person or third person, feels is appropriate. If the narrator or a character would say “fuck,” then of course he or she is going to say “fuck.” If he or she would not say it, then of course it won’t be said.

That really says what I feel about fiction – much of it is best left to the characters and the subconscious scribe that I channel as I type. Of course I intentionally bring the story to the page, I begin the story and sometimes (but certainly not always) have a frame for it, but when I let the characters and the events lead the narrative, my best writing ensues.

Another benefit of this undertaking is the pressure to sit my ass in the chair and write every day. Even if it’s under duress and I feel I have nothing to say, I sit and write. I was also thinking about the amount of writing I am producing and will produce by the end of the project. Say the average post would be two to three manuscript pages. That is 200 to 300 pages by the end. That is the length of a novel. Sooooo, if I were to do this with a single project . . . I think you see where I’m going with this train of thought.

And finally, I am doing something every day that I love to do but for years have found some excuse not to do. I am embracing that part of myself I’ve let lay dormant for much of my adult life. I am freeing the artist within, that creative impulse, by opening the door every day, for just a few minutes, and letting her run around and play. I am playing with words, how they feel, what they can do, and the power they hold. As James Michner says: “Writing: I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.”

So if you are so inclined, join the dance and see what happens here.