Fear in Writing: The Writing Experience

Today in Literary History

Today in Literary History...December 14, 1907: Rudyard Kipling receives the Nobel prize for literature, the first English-language writer to do so.ud

Sunday, October 11, 2009

The Writing Experience


A writer who doesn't write is a writer of mysteries. Is it mysterious to write without writing? Is this ridiculous or riddling? Am I babbling or waxing philosophical?
The leaves are turning yellow, the grass is turning brown. I've been a "writer" since the sun was high in May and I have only turned one piece in for judgement. One 25-hundred word piece for a mere cash prize.
My 18mo daughter yells "stop!" upstairs, except it has three syllables. My 4yo son hisses back with a bit of lion roar thrown in. Now she screams and runs the other way. Their tiny feet pound like horses' hooves.

Is it any wonder my thoughts are so disjointed? And this may be the most honest post I've written. Maybe I could turn this into the roving thoughts of a raving killer, or the twisted mind of a besieged victim.
Is that my life?

I'm not sad about it. Becoming a writer, or, more accurately, realizing I'm a writer, has allowed me to see things differently. At night I walk the silent house and hear things no one else does. I see the shadows as cutting or diabolical or mysterious when they may only be incidental. I hear my footsteps as creepy or concerning or sneaky when they're may only be carefully placed.
Writing is taking all of this normalise and twisting it into a plot. And it is taking the craziness and making it normal enough to fit between the covers of a book.

3 comments:

  1. I tend to look at the world through the writing lens. Sometimes it gives me a sense of distance from things around me, but I don't mind--it also gives me a sense of heightened awareness.

    Elizabeth
    Mystery Writing is Murder

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  2. I have found the writing comes at its own pace in its own time. The questions start forming and then the answers start arriving and then suddenly you're writing.

    Elspeth

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  3. I wrote and wrote and wrote, mostly on here and other blogs, and then I dried out. Coincidentally, my time disappeared as well. But now I think I'm ready again. The wax and wane is frustrating. But I'm glad I'm documenting it so I can look back one day...And so I can count on the encouragement of others!

    Michele

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