Write Club report: The giddy phase
Write Club is a journey. As I've shared in my last few posts, I started out a few days ago knowing nothing about what I needed to produce during these first two weeks. But after mulling over some potential plots that meet the requirements of the first story prompt, I chose my storyline. And today, because I've started the actual writing, and my characters are coming to life, I'm going to write about...
The giddy phase
Image credit: Pixabay
The first part of storytelling can be painful. For me, determining what to write about is a process. Then once I figure that out, getting started is a hurdle. I don't believe in my characters. They feel hopelessly flat and boring. But if I forge ahead and start rounding them out and getting to know them and building on the details, all of a sudden things start to work.
And then it is magical.
The words come. They land on the page as if they belong there, as if the story exists in some altered universe and my only job is to help it fully materialize so others can see it. I am no longer a marionette, trying to get wooden puppets to dance, but I am with them, hearing them, walking along with them, and helping them to say what they want to say.
I can't explain it. But it happens every time.
As I build my writing muscles (because, if you don't use it you lose it, and I took a long hiatus), the painful beginnings of story writing are becoming less challenging over time, and they take less time. Also, I have faith. I have been through the icky phase enough that I know it is just part of the creative process. And I know that I will push through it and the story will come to life.
Write Club officially started Monday, and I've decided to blog about this process (at least for as long as it seems somewhat interesting) because I hope my experience and progress will be helpful to other writers.
Thus far, the journey has involved:
- Posting about how to do the 16-week Write Club challenge whether or not you are officially in this Write Club round.
- Receiving the story prompt from @tanglebranch, who was chosen in a random drawing as our prompt pioneer.
- Posting about the process of plotting the story.
- Posting about the element of dramatic irony, which I have decided to include in my story.
I hope these posts are helpful to other writers. When the words don't come, just stick with it. Don't give up. It's the sticking with it that makes the difference in getting from frustrated and mired to the giddy phase of writing. It really should be fun, don't you think?
Over and out.
If you are a writer seeking community and support, you can find editors to help you at The Writers’ Block on Discord.
Thanks for the good post. Although I'm not a writer, I used to be. There were a lot of things inside me and all I did was just to help them out.
But now, I think I lost them all.
Your post is inspirational to me.
I hope you will continue. There are some wonderful supportive communities here and on Discord. See the link I added to the bottom of the post.
You've explained the anguish well. The bouts of self doubt that oscillate with moments of exhilaration. The giddy phase is the best though.
It truly is. I think it must be something like “runner’s high” which evidently many runners experience once they push through that early resistance. Getting started with anything that takes effort is always the hard part. But you always feel much better, sometimes even euphoric, when you hit your stride.
Pushing through resistance can be such a mental minefield. But I can understand the similarity to runners high. That's a good way to describe it.
I like how you call it the 'Giddy phase.' That's totally a thing! I just never thought to call it that XD
Nice!
I had to come up with something to go with the picture. Just kidding. I do think it is the most awesome feeling to break through that awful quagmire that plagues many of us when we launch into a new work. Perhaps (and I can speak from experience, though this analogy may not particularly resonate with you), it is something like childbirth. We want to have had the baby, and once the challenges of the gestation period and delivery are over, the worst of the pain quickly becomes a distant memory. And we are then willing to do it all again because we remember the bliss, not everything that led up to it. And there is simply no way to opt out of that part of the process.
Sometimes those flat boring characters are the common men we all relate to, with volumes of stories boiling inside them.
Oh my gosh, I love that comment. That is so true. If we populate our fiction with remarkable characters, who will our readers relate to? Love it. And thank you so much for participating in the conversation!
No problem, I love to write, mostly poetry. I was a high school art teacher for 40 years, now I create both art and write.
That’s wonderful. They are pursuits than can sustain us for a lifetime.
It's such a struggle sometimes. I vacillate on how to start every story, pondering, flopping around like a fish. I feel like so much of my story depends on that first paragraph, that first sentence.
Once I have that out of the way, the whole flavor of the story is set and then there's SO MUCH TO DO. It's like coming into work after being on vacation for a month. Desk is full of things to be done.
That's how the story writing feels to me. You just have so many things you want to say and things to describe because everything feels hopelessly shallow at the beginning, but you have to pace yourself. As you say, just stick it out.
Neg! Totally missed this bodacious comment a few days ago. Heh. Speaking of many things to do! I have been crazy sidetracked with editing my first Write Club story which must go into the WC queue tonight. Yay! Oh my, you described my exact experience. I’m glad I’m not the only writer who does that! Thanks for visiting and commenting, @negativer.
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