Friday, March 04, 2005
Writing Is So Emotional
Part 1
I am posting today’s entry early because it is all I have been able to think about since late last night.
I have realised something major. It is writing related so may not seem as important to some of you as understandable by others.
I now know why the last month worth of Hunting Jack was so hard to write. I know now, why I struggled to get out what was basically, the easiest and most certain area of the plot.
It was the pivotal point in Jackie’s life; the lowest he has ever been and is ever likely to get. Not many get lower than he is right now. It is the crux, the turning point, the basis of what makes Jackie a person. He came into the story a naïve boy with a sore heart. On the journey to this pivotal section he has started to uncover many clues and realise certain things, not all if which are good. It is a down-slope of reality and he has slid to the bottom.
The reason I found the last section so hard, is because Jackie is now on the road to his destiny. He is about to start putting the pieces together and understanding what makes his world go round. He is tying up the story.
For me, this means I can see the end. And I don’t want it to end. I suddenly realised that I can’t stop what is going to be inevitable; the last word of the last issue.
I know what happens to Jackie on a general basis and how the loose string all ties up. But I don’t know what he does with all the information and how he ends up. There are all kinds of possibilities and I guess I will just have to wait and find out what he decides to do. But the problem is, when it is finished, where will I take it?
Do I continue the serial purely to carry on a love affair with a story? Or do I let it peter out so I can transform it into a novel in a few months time. Do I write a new serial? Do I complete my first novel WIP? Will I ever work with Jackie McCann again?
Cards no the table; life without writing Hunting Jack is gong to be so very different. Do all authors get this feeling? Or am I embarking on an unusual and unsettling road of self-discovery about writing longer pieces of work. This is already so much different from writing a short story, but I never realised I was this much emotionally attached to a figment of my imagination.
I am posting today’s entry early because it is all I have been able to think about since late last night.
I have realised something major. It is writing related so may not seem as important to some of you as understandable by others.
I now know why the last month worth of Hunting Jack was so hard to write. I know now, why I struggled to get out what was basically, the easiest and most certain area of the plot.
It was the pivotal point in Jackie’s life; the lowest he has ever been and is ever likely to get. Not many get lower than he is right now. It is the crux, the turning point, the basis of what makes Jackie a person. He came into the story a naïve boy with a sore heart. On the journey to this pivotal section he has started to uncover many clues and realise certain things, not all if which are good. It is a down-slope of reality and he has slid to the bottom.
The reason I found the last section so hard, is because Jackie is now on the road to his destiny. He is about to start putting the pieces together and understanding what makes his world go round. He is tying up the story.
For me, this means I can see the end. And I don’t want it to end. I suddenly realised that I can’t stop what is going to be inevitable; the last word of the last issue.
I know what happens to Jackie on a general basis and how the loose string all ties up. But I don’t know what he does with all the information and how he ends up. There are all kinds of possibilities and I guess I will just have to wait and find out what he decides to do. But the problem is, when it is finished, where will I take it?
Do I continue the serial purely to carry on a love affair with a story? Or do I let it peter out so I can transform it into a novel in a few months time. Do I write a new serial? Do I complete my first novel WIP? Will I ever work with Jackie McCann again?
Cards no the table; life without writing Hunting Jack is gong to be so very different. Do all authors get this feeling? Or am I embarking on an unusual and unsettling road of self-discovery about writing longer pieces of work. This is already so much different from writing a short story, but I never realised I was this much emotionally attached to a figment of my imagination.
Colin 10:57 am