Drafts and Drafts and Drafts

Writing about writing can be very uninteresting---unless, of course, it is in the name of helping others.

So let me help you. A little.

First of all---no matter how long you think it’s going to take you to write something in the long form, multiply by that by about sixty. No exaggeration. It takes about sixty times as long to write something as you think it will when you start out. Sure, anyone can text, make a blog entry, poke off an email, you name it, real quick. But if you want to write something that will be publishable or producible, you have to go over it again and again, with your own eyes, the eyes of people you trust, the eyes of people you don’t trust, and then some. And the thing you thought you were going to write, by the end, is something, usually, much more streamlined and much clearer and hopefully deeper and better than that first draft you zipped through.

Writing songs is a quicker process than writing scripts or books. But songs are short. I am starting to think that songs are more fun. But they cannot possibly cover as much ground in the idea department. Of course, they can go much deeper in the feelings department. But funny, not everyone who hears it can feel it.

If you are going to write in a long format---just write. Start writing out a little paragraph of an idea or not even the idea. Just start writing. If it grabs you---go for a bigger thing. You have to weave story, character and growing needs into a climax and some sort of resolution. Or not. You can just do the shaggy thing. But if you do the shaggy thing, well, good luck. That’s hard.

Stories, very simply, imitate the life flow. Birth, life, death. It can be the birth, life and death of any person, place or thing and even better, a little tiny piece of any of those. It is simpler and harder than you think.

I used to want to be sweeping and throw a very large net. I am starting to think a very small net is the way to go.

Perhaps it is time that we all reread To the Lighthouse.