Sep
24
Writers and Printers
Amy

My printer is somewhat emotional. On the rare, and or frequent, occasion I hit PRINT rather than SAVE. The easy solution is supposed to be click on the little icon and cancel the “Print Job”. My printer, however, does not like to be pushed about. I can’t just go willy nilly telling it to print one second and then to stop the next.

Just the other day this happened with some random notes I had typed up. After all my magic tricks, the laser printer still felt the need to kick out 40 pages of information that was good for nothing but advancing global warming. My printer refused to listen to me.

In my humble opinion, as writers we can be the same way my printer is.

There are times when the cosmos are telling you to let the idea simmer and work on something new, but we just bang away at it. We drag the story from our Muse rather than wooing it. We can’t see the best way to improve our plot or characters or whatever we are stuck on, but are hell bent on meeting x word count/page count goal for the day, etc. I am talking about personal deadlines not about those you are being paid to meet.

Your Muse will want the story a certain way. Until you can hear what that is, may I suggest working on something new to meet your word count for the day. Ignoring your muse can lead you stuck, frustrated and with writing of little value; much like my printer.

I am not suggesting that you cancel the project. Just don’t hit PRINT yet.

How do you get unstuck?

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  • saesaenorris
    Amy, you are in tune with the writers here in Utah at least! The Utah Writers Group had a meeting the other day and that very topic came up. (The process, not the printer!).

    We all came to the same conclusion. While there is no single process for every writer, it's true that sometimes you should let an idea properly germinate before you go about pruning it.

    I have a ton of ideas, all which I write down as they come, but in my heart I know that "now" is not the time for Project A, or Project B. So back in the incubator they go, and I write until I'm blindsided by the idea that's underneath all the other ideas and it tells me that it's time.

    I found out just the other day from my own experience that if I don't let an idea simmer long enough, then nothing but "lava" is going to come out. Sometimes you just gotta know which buttons to push.
  • How cool! I am glad the UT Writers Group is going well and that we are on the same page with this. I know I am guilty of forcing idea's. I like the concept of putting the idea's back into the incubator!

    Thanks for reading!
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