What Fresh Obsession
By Ann Aguirre | June 13, 2012 |
I’ve written before about the dangers of the Shiny New Idea.
But this post isn’t about that. Or rather, it is, but I’ve got the hat on backward today. When you’re writing to deadlines, there are a number of expectations.
1) This book will logically follow the last one in the series.
2) It will be consistent with prior characterization and worldbuilding.
3) It will, more or less, keep the promises you made in the synopsis when you sold it.
It’s wonderful to have contracts and deadlines; I’m grateful to have multiple editors, multiple publishers, but at this point, they have certain expectations of me. I’ve earned a reputation for always turning my work in on time. I’m known for producing a certain type of book. When you add all those expectations up, pound for pound, they can be become exhausting. And daunting.
Have ever heard that you should change your shampoo brand now and then? Because if you don’t, if you use the same product day after day, then you’ll eventually get build up on your hair, and it’ll start looking dull and lifeless? I don’t know if this is true for everyone, but my hair definitely looks shinier if I use a shampoo that strips out the residue, or if I switch brands for a while. Either way, I see results.
And my writing brain is that way as well. I can only write to deadline for so long on contracted material until I feel like a caged parakeet, singing madly, but only to one tune. Then I get all sad, and I wish somebody would put a cover over my cage because I am so done with singing. Forevah! (In this analogy, singing is writing. Still with me? Good.) While I’m frantically writing to make my deadlines, I am fortitude itself. I resist the Shiny New Idea. I avoid its come-hither glances.
But sometimes I just have to let it seduce me. Why? Because I need to remember the magic. I need to experience the joy of writing for its own sake. Not for money or for publication or to make my editor happy or to tie up loose ends in a series for my readers. All of those things are important, of course, but they’re not more important than loving my job. Otherwise, this will turn into drudgery, and I might as well be working in a cubicle.
So while I revise a novel this summer, I’m also writing a book on spec. (That means nobody knows about it. Nobody wants it. It’s just for me. And for my daughter, whose abso-bloody-lutely genius idea I’m working from.) The cool thing about this Shiny New Idea? The writing is easy, like making love to someone you’ve been with for years. I don’t drive myself to meet word count goals; there are no goals. There’s only the love of the characters and the story, the urgent, desperate need to find out what happens next, who says what, how it ends. There’s the gasp of sweet satisfaction when a twist surprises me, and the rise of tears when I realize this nascent, wobbly thing could someday be utterly beautiful.
It’s falling in love; that’s what it is. And you need that feeling like air, like water, to carry you over the rough spots, when duty weighs heavy and the deadlines feel too hard. So far, I’ve written over 13,000 words in four days. I’m not trying to do it by a certain date. I’m not racing. I’m just in love, and I can’t stop thinking about these magnificent people who live in my head. Maybe one day, this special, secret WiP will be an actual for-sale book, but right now, it’s not about that at all. It’s for the magic, the mystery, of creation.
So what’s your current obsession? (I’m inviting you to share something that enchants you about your WiP, but you’re allowed to discuss other things. *g*)
Ann Aguirre is a bestselling, multi-published author with a degree in English Literature. She is a prolific writer, with nine releases planned for 2011 alone. She writes romantic science fiction and urban fantasy under her own name. As Ava Gray, she writes high-octane romances. She also writes “hot paranormal apocalyptic action” with fellow author Carrie Lofty under the pseudonymn Ellen Connor. Follow her on Twitter.
Excellent post. I just wrote about something similar on my blog, about how I have to write at least a plot grid for my Shiny New Idea so it will leave me alone. ;) Of course, I don’t have deadlines or anything to worry about (yet!) but if I don’t at least give my Shiny New Idea a bit of space, it will interfer with my main project (often by trying to make me change my plot).
In relation to your question, what I love about my current project is being on the second draft! I left it languishing on my laptop for SIX months but when I came back to it, I really liked it again. Of course, it’s the characters I love the most. I think it’s hard not to fall in love with people you create. ;)
Thanks for the post.
Since I don’t have an agent or publisher with expectations and demands, ALL my stories are self-motivated to flesh out the concepts, characters and plot lines dancing around in my head. When I feel I have said what I have to say, it goes on Amazon and I move on to the next. I love my work.
I’m still 98% entrenched in my first WIP which no one really knows about, I wrote just for me, and I’m afraid no one wants. I’m on the verge of presenting it to others, releasing it into the real world for critique, but each time I think it’s ready I pull it back because I’ve dreamed of some new aspect or angle I simply must work in. A writer’s obsession or just fear of finding out it may stink?
Meanwhile, I have ideas for story #2 lurking, niggling their way out, but I’m not ready for them. Not yet, but soon.
Great post.
I wish there was a way to “like” a post, as we can with comments. When there’s nothing to add to the already perfect post. That’s what I would do here.
Ann,
You are right on target. It’s liberating to clear your mind and just write what you want to write. I just finished a WIP, put it aside, read through it and decided to scrap it because it needed to much work and it was way outside my genre. It will never get published, but I had so much fun with it. Thanks for sharing these thoughts. We all need to hear this every now and then.
This reminds me of that quote which is like on pillars of creation for me now: “Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self” Cyril Connolly
In my life I have gone through periods where I am either writing for myself or the public. My shrink calls these ‘extended hypomanic episodes’ and I like that description because it seems to represent the intensity in a clinical way, which I don’t usually find faith in.
I’m glad for you, that you’ve found that clear patch in the rubble of existence where everything seems to have reason, rhyme and purpose. Just to find freedom each day to do, to be, it’s what I seek too.
This is what happens when I give myself over to the ‘writing for myself’ episodes in life. Eventually I found a name for those times, I become ‘Briellezbub’.
Briellezbub is more than a pen name, she is a personality that captured me perhaps five or more years ago now. Briellezbub is a cruel Mistress, a minion of Lady Art, who in turn commands me by taking over my body and soul whenever an impulse of creativity strikes me; creatio ex nihilo. I have only known Lady Art through visions and dreams – these creations belong to her, as now I know I am merely a puppet. This came to me once; it is of the Lady Art – I have paid dearly I’m sure for sharing it, but here it is again:
You know, I don’t have any expectations of this work, these little pieces. From time to time, I look at them, listen to them, and at the end of whatever they say, I have an experience of exaltation. It is from Her; I couldn’t possibly expect more from existence. In the parallel world there is the cruel lesson I have learned from Lady Art. I may think, ‘I like writing and making music’, and that is all well and fine. But once the book is open, the story will appear; Lady Art does not wait, she enters with a gong, takes you, then leaves you whenever she chooses: prone, naked, and alone. ~ Briellezbub
I loved working on my last NaNoWriMo. I toyed with the idea of turning it into an official book, but then I thought “Nah, this is mine.” It was so liberating just to sit and create with no expectations other than to create! Once a week, I like to try to write something small in that same vein – a poem, song lyrics, an essay – that’s “just for me.” My Muse is satisfied that way, and drafting and re-drafting my current WIP becomes less tedious (I love this book, but it’s much harder to write when you feel like you have something on the line for it.)
It’s a classic dilemma that squeezes successful authors: Got a hit? Do it again. Make it a series. Once a year, please. (Oh, and please make time for novellas, blurbs, a tour, proofs and more.)
They don’t tell you about that one.
It’s great to recharge. A fresh project is like fresh air. I advise my clients only this: Don’t expect that everyone will like it or embrace your new direction.
Then again, build it strongly and it may become your new prison. Authors like Harlan Coben, Michael Koryta, Laura Lippman, Nancy Pickard, Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown and many others tried a new direction and soared.
Still others have found ways to keep series fresh. Putting series protagonists through new wringers looks impossible but it’s not. There’s always a new obsession and a way to use it.
Great post!
My current obsession is the notion of randomness and how it can bring people together. I love what you say about the “come hither magic” because that is what it is, a kind of seduction. And I can see what you mean about needing to keep the flame alive in the midst of deadlines. To be romanced by one’s ideas for plot and characters is indeed a privilege and a blessing in life.
Good for you, Ann! You are filling the well AND in the creative flow (where the magic happens.)
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Love the advice to “cheat” on one’s usual style or genre or whatever. As you said, it can be a breath of fresh air. It can remind us to play. And play is such a vital part of good art.
If nothing else, I think free-writing helps with this. Just 20 minutes every day (or every few days, if you’re that busy) can be very refreshing. At least for me.
I always have more than one project on the go. I find it is easier to be productive if I can choose between revising, outlining or drafting.
Eventually, one project takes priority, but I never feel like I’m grinding out the words this way. As of today I’m,
prepping book 2 of the Charity Deacon Investigations
drafting the first book of a 4 book romance series
revising book 3 of the Madeline Journeys
and I have an outline of book 3 of the Quinn Larson Quests teed up to start drafting.
Variety keeps me productive.
Obsession is the perfect word. I’m in the final, final scenes of a novel due September 1. I don’t have a shrink, but what I am might be what Bree referred to as ‘extended hypomanic episodes.’
The premise obsessing me now is how powerful WORDS are. How they can literally bring something spoken to life. Something that was not there before IS.
That old saying we learned in grade school, ‘Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt (or help, in this case) me’ is such a lie.
I write like crazy so I can figure out the ending, the whole truth.
I’ve written and published non-fiction (as Linda Williams, https://williams-science.blogspot.com/, mostly science books) for various ages and publishers for 10 years. I am just getting back to the children’s fiction that started me writing in the first place.
My challenge is to continue to work on the non-fiction projects that built my writing resume originally, while plugging away at picture books manuscripts that are close, but no creme brulee.
Lots of variety, but I feel a bit like a split personality.
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Another good reminder to remember the FUN. Thanks! Some friends are starting a writing challenge in August. If I get my WIP stuff done by then I may just start a story just for me.