Thursday, February 24, 2005

Plodding to flight

      The words came hard tonight. Sometimes it's like that. The story makes you work for everything. Sometimes I think that's okay. Easy things are sometimes not worth a lot. Other times I just think it's a great big pain in the butt. Tonight it's been a pain.
      The thing is that tomorrow the words may come easy. But to get to there, I have go through here. One word at a time. I plod a lot. Word to sentence to paragraph and repeat until you turn the page.
      Other times I run. The words just spill out, and the story flows bright and clear. And then I get those wondrous times, those rare, perfect moments when I fly.
      It's easy when you fly. But I've learned a secret about flying: If you live just for flight, you won't make it. You have to enjoy the plodding. Or if not enjoy, at least feel the satisfaction of a good job done when you're finished. Each plodding step takes us closer to the launching point, closer to flight. I don't know any other way to do it. And I think this writing lesson applies to life, too. We have to earn our wings, and we do that by working at it every day.
      My friend Randall has told me several times that he's amazed at how much writing I do. I keep telling him that it's not that amazing; anyone can do it. You just apply the seat of your pants to the chair and your fingers to the keyboard. Word by word the tally grows. Plod, run, flight. It works. And if we do it consistently in writing, sports, arts, anything, eventually we will all soar.

6 comments:

Gloria Williams said...

Good advice. I've been reading Silent Bounce by Holly Lisle. Day by day Ms. Lisle lists her total word counts on her various WIPs. She works when she's sick or well, happy or sad. She works at it every day, raises a family, and does all the other things that people have to do to live. I think I haven't finished a book because I lack that committment. I admire people who do.

Anonymous said...

Good thoughts, the day to day struggle is so true about every aspect of life. Some people look at anothers accomplishment and think it came easy seeing only the flight and not the plodding. If you publish a book on life include some version of this. Oh that was little unerving seeing my name on the blog.
Randall

Erudite Redneck said...

I really do believe that what Mencken said is true: "People can't write because they can't think." That means Holly must be able to keep her head clear and focused amid the rest of the chaos of life. All of us can do that sometimes. Few of can do it all the time. My rush of the week was a news story that I finished and turned in 56 minutes from the time I first got the tip. It was only about 500 words, but had three sources quoted and a fourth on background. Everybody just happened to be by their phones, and it was the kind of breaking news that makes you drop everything and focus if you're a journalist. Some fun. Best reporting-writing fun I've had a in awhile actually.

Anonymous said...

Im with Randal! I'm amazed at how much you write!!! I don't have the willpower!!!

Someday you will get a book published & I will tell people that I knew you back when!!!

Anonymous said...

I don't know how much you write, but if this blog is an indication of what you write, you need to write more!

I went to Holly Lisle's site from your blog links. It's amazing. She must be quite a writer. The writing articles are informative and lively. Thanks for linking her or I might never have known about her.

CrystalDiggory said...

Jerry Seinfeld once said he used to write and work on his comedy a couple times a week and thought he was doing just fine. Then one day, he noticied a couple construction workers walking to work and it hit him. They don't really want to go to that job, but every day they got up and trudged to work. It made him realize he had to do the same with his job and so he started writing and working on his act every day, whether he felt "funny" or not.