Have you ever felt lost with your writing? Or worried that you’re heading off-track from where you originally planned to go?
These words could help you…
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You COULD start by finding someone who looks a bit like Gandalf and ask them what to do. They—being of a wise and rational disposition—may advise you to take a break: Find an empty piece of paper, write out your unanswered questions and set about answering them before continuing. Or they may tell you to set a finish point for your current chapter and work backwards from there.
If that works for you, great, BUT…
…how about this more daring approach to writing, which has helped me persevere in unfamiliar territory, and produced excitingly satisfying results.
In the appropriately named opening chapter—An Introduction—of Smoke and Mirrors, Neil Gaiman reveals most of his short stories did not end how he intended them to. He says there was ‘some kind of ending but once the story was underway, the real ending became inevitable.’
This struck a chord with me. If nothing else, it renewed my faith in me. It could for you too. Here’s how:
It’s great to have an ending in mind—it could be the catalyst to get you started on your writing journey. But as you develop characters, plots and throw in sprinklings of your writing magic, don’t be worried if your story begins to tell itself.
It could be a sign that things are coming together for you.
Yes, you may be heading away from your brilliantly prophesised direction, and it may seem like you’re in No Man’s Land, but as long as your story is building momentum and is going somewhere, why not be courageous and see where it takes you?
You can always press delete if it doesn’t work, and NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW, but what if the ending comes together in a magical and entirely unexpected way?
You will amaze yourself!
I close with another of Neil’s simple yet wonderfully insightful statements: ‘The only way I would know a story was finished was when there weren’t any more words to be written down.’
Why not have faith in yourself? Why not enjoy getting lost and finding out what your imagination is truly capable of?
PS. If this post inspired you, then you’ll love this!
