Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Day 17: Musing in the midst of other writing...

I've been surprised to discover a demotivating danger in my writing. Sadly, it's tied to lack of planning and proceeding only out of some vague idea of what's ahead. The more I write, and write, and write, putting word to page, the more I get bogged down in the hum drum of the characters life. And face it, if we were a character, and our day were a word for word account much of it would bore us to tears.

This is where I found myself, staring at pages of story and unwritten pages of story, wondering where the next event of import would be in the lives of my characters. What do I need to tell the reader that is pertinent to the story, because it's going to take longer than a few days of activity for the development I'm looking for to take place.

In many ways, a good story is like one season in the history of a team, a snapshot of one great moment in a lifetime, and maybe, just maybe, a great story is the highlight reel that encompasses the best moments to most showcase the struggle, the tragedy, the passion, the best and worst - those things that mark the defining moments leading to season's end and victory.

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