Possession
Since I let myself work on Shiny Idea, I’ve been possessed. I love feeling like this. My god, I love my story. It’s crazy. I wake up early so I can work on it. I think about it all the time.
It’s like this story is a divine mission.
Which is a little depressing, since books of the heart and whatnot do not typically sell. I don’t think I’ve ever written a “book of the heart.” I’ve loved several of the stories I’ve written, but I don’t think I’ve loved my characters quite so much.
This story is so populated, my head is already spinning. I have no idea how I’m going to pull this off. I can’t wait to try.
Different things drive us in different parts of our writing life. I used to love getting in a character’s skin. When I first started writing, I would sit for hours and play with words in a single sentence. Now, my obsession is plot. The more complicated I can make it, the more I love it. Plot is the COOLEST. I think that’s why I’m having so much fun in this one. I love a ton of interweaving connections. I love the mini-stories, the hints and bits you drop and then weave in later, the twists, and—in this one—the far-fetched things I have to challenge myself to “sell” to the reader.
You know me. I love fictional fiction, where belief must be suspended. That’s going to be a struggle in this one, since so many elements are “real.” I love Irving and Dickens and Zafron and Gaiman and the like because you’re reading fictional fiction made real, not realism made into a novel.
Anyway, I’m possessed, loving my characters, and having a blast with plot. This book is going to be FUN to write. It’s a modern re-telling of Les Miserables, which always makes me cry. When I was telling the story of Les Miserables to Glenn, I choked up several times and had tears running down my face. I’ve been dying to do a modern re-telling of it since forever; I just needed the other half.
What about you? How does your current WIP tickle your fancy? Have you ever been possessed’ by a story before? Have you ever had one where “writer’s high” is nearly constant?
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Natasha Fondren is a writer traveling the U.S. in a camper with her four cats. She is currently enjoying the lizards and desert heat in Arizona.
How fun! You said you wanted to feel passionate about writing again, and it sounds like you are.
I’m itching to start writing my newest idea, but I don’t know the story yet. I don’t like just writing without knowing at least part of where it’s going, so I need to keep thinking on it.
That’s a good point, Melanie! This is a good point. So many times, I wish for something, and I don’t even notice when it arrives, let alone take time to be grateful for it!
Have you started it yet? I’m excited for you!
I hope I can find some passion like this in my revision….Ride this wave as long as you can! Have fun!
Heather, I’ll try! I’m trying to get it back, today!
I’m envying you right now. I want to feel like that! I feel that way in small doses, but not every day. Today I’m looking out the window and it’s snowing out. I need to shop today. I’m buying two gift certificates and groceries. So the snow stopping is on my mind right now, and not my writing.
It’s a quieter love today. I miss snow, Edie! I don’t miss the cold, but I’ve always loved snow. I’m surprised how much I miss snow.
I’m so glad you’re having fun with this! I feel the same way about my new project. It’s so thrilling at the beginning. And I am a huge fan of plot right now, also!
Plot just rocks, Jill! I’m crazy about it! Good luck with your new WIP!
Fictional fiction is the best! I once got highly offended by an editor I had in a former life. She said something like, “That could NEVER happen, blah-blah-blah,” and I was like, “Well, I think anything is possible in fiction.” Anyway, it really soured me on writing for a bit because it just took all the fun out of it.
I think the “heart” books are the ones that bring joy to the reader. Unfortunately, not many agents or editors agree with my thinking. Go figure, right?
Kath, I think you’re right about heart books. And I think what agents and editors are seeing is heart without skill. I just remember piano, and how I’d have to do SO much technical work and memorizing and drill just to be able to let go and play with heart. But if you play with heart without it, it’s a mess, LOL.
SCAR has been a long road for me, and I’ve got a long way to go. Right not I’m on a bit of a break to write a really light short story. It gets so heavy at times, and I’m poking along at it. But I love my characters, Castile most of all because he brings out the best in Trin, who never knew he had a “best” at all.
Watching you write SCAR has been fun, Betsy. It’s been really fascinating. Trin is the one who seems the most fascinating to me, but then I only know the story through the comments you make now and then.
I don’t know. I guess I think of every book as a book of my heart. I’ve heard women use that term, but maybe they mean it differently than I would think of it. Glad you are having fun though. That is so important.
Yeah. Sometimes I lose the fun to the daily grind, Charles, and that’s no good. Because the daily grind of writing actually rocks.
It’s great to actually have fun writing!
I actually wrote a 15,000 word story in two weeks which is really fast for me. I enjoyed it because I just said the heck with it and wrote what I wanted to. Only problem is, Mary and I were asked for one of our mystery story collaborations for an anthology and it isn’t a mystery (crime only) and it is obviously not something Mary, or the two of us together would write, so I don’t know what can be done with it. But writing it was fun.
I love your description of fictional fiction. Mostly that is what I like, if I take your meaning correctly. I am right now reading (in awe) Louis Ferdinand Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night which in some ways is a gritty and realistic but utimately goes way over the top to the extent it is practically fantasy.I’ve read a lot of great books this year that purport to be real but aren’t. Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat is another different sort. To me, the beatuy of fiction is it doesn’t have to adher slavishly to reality.
Wow, Eric! Can you do something with it? That’s cool! And wow, I really want to try that. You always find these really cool, obscure books that aren’t available on Kindle. *sigh*
I’ll have to check the shelves. I’m at Borders, and I only have twelve books at my side. Surely I can read one just one more in the next twelve hours. (*snort*)
Heck with how my book is going!! I love hearing about yours! It is absolutely great how much you enjoy this latest work. Cheers me up every time I hear how excited you are.
And before I forget, Happy Holidays to you and Glenn and all the folks dear to your heart.
LOL, Rick! I need to remember how excited I am, today. Before I talk myself out of it!
Thanks, Rick! Happy Holidays to you and yours, too!
My current WiP tickles my fancy, simply because after I get the blasted thing done, it will mark my re-emergence to the joys of querying agents and publishers after a three year hiatus.
As for a story that “possessed” me, one that I wrote for my blog got to me Thanksgiving weekend, in which I wrote about 16 1/2 pages over four days to finish it up. It totaled about 30 pages and it took me about two weeks to write.
G, I can’t wait to play the query game! So I’m with you, there.
Oh wow! That’s a story that grabbed you. This idea has possessed me… now I just hope the words possess my fingers!
Natasha — LOVE, love, love that feeling. Go with it. Put the whole idea of “selling” completely out of your mind and simply go for it. At least for the first draft. Then you can revisit. Enjoy!
GREAT advice, Joan! You’re right. Absolutely right. I’m going to just go for it. Fast. As Stephen King says, I need to outrun my self-doubt demons!
My current WIP has completely enveloped me. I think it’s because I love voice and the impulsiveness of my heroine. This is also the first time that I’ve attempted a YA novel, so it’s a challenge and a fun one at that. It has forced me to relive my high school days and how much I hated them. I like to think of this as my “glad high school wasn’t like this when I grew up” novel.
I love that feeling, Marcia! And YA, awesome! That is so neat. I hated high school, passionately.
That is so cool, Natasha!! Good luck with this.
I am that way with my revision right now. I got the drafts over with and now I am looking forward to getting to the meat of the story with a first-person viewpoint. I am raring to go at it after the holidays…
Thanks, Jewel! I love the raring to go, feelign! The holidays have actually disrupted my enthusiasm, but I’m hitting back today.
Good luck! I loved your story on that family!