Monday, January 15, 2007

Stalling

Today's Mood: Calm. Today's Music: Ava Maria (just got back from a Catholic Funeral) Today's Writing: Weelllll..... see below. Today's Quote:
I'm a little afraid to start writing in case I screw it up. -Sarah McElrath
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Am I stalling? I'm not sure. I mean, one could say that all this character developement is a necessary part of the story. After all, it helps to know a person's past in order to know how he/she will react to events in the future. But I suppose there comes a point when endlessly drawing pictures of my characters becomes a form of stalling--a way to put off the actual writing. And why would I want to do that? I love these characters. I'm excited about this story. I even have several scenes already in my head. But that, in and of itself, is the problem. I'm afraid to screw it up. I love these characters too much to mess with them. It's good in my head--what if when I write it down, it isn't as good? I know, I know--I need to get over it. I need to write knowing that it won't be good enough, but that's okay because that is what revision is for. I DO know. Yet today I drew instead of writing. However, today's drawing (queen bitch) was the last of the main characters. Tomorrow I have no excuse. Although I was thinking maybe I should outline....

2 comments:

outdoorwriter said...

This is great! Thanks, Sarah, for setting this up. It's wonderful seeing others are struggling with the same "writer's block," procrastination, etc.os

smcelrath said...

Yeah, it's great to be able to share our exciting news--but even better to be commiserate together! Being a writer is an awful addication that I wouldn't change for the world.