It’s strange the way a writer’s mind works. At times, I’m not even sure if my mind works like a “normal” writer’s mind, or is that a stupid comparison? I know too many of us feel far from normal, is there even such an animal as a normal writer? Probably not.

Anyway, I’ve been looking forward to the idea of beginning a story and doing nothing but attending the page and writing forward. I have a super cool idea with a song for a “gong” that jumpstarts my imagination every time I hear it. AFI: Prelude 12/21. Ever since the Smallville episode that played that song for Lex Luthor, I have loved to play it over and over. It’s one of those too short songs.

So here I am writing and I have a few thousand words, then my mind blanks. And not even sitting with the Alphasmart, the laptop or a notebook got the words flowing. Neither did reading or napping or daydreaming as I listened to music. That’s when I realized that’s as far as this organic writer can go before trying to plan *something*. But I don’t plot normally, either.

This weekend, I pulled out the book that speaks most to me as a writer. The Anatomy of Story by John Truby. This is a book for organic writers. It’s not plug and play GMC or lists of scenes. Not at first, anyway. He begins with the designing principle.

I began studying this book last spring, using it in conjunction with Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain. I’ve read through both, highlighting and writing notes. This weekend, I came to a different understanding. Everything I’d studied flew out of my head and I need to go over it again. I think one of the best ways for me to learn something is not hands on or just seeing it in writing. It’s if I explain it. So, I believe, starting at the beginning, I need to explain it to someone.

Again, I am slow and consistency kicks my butt every time. Thus the issue with NaNoWriMo. But stay tuned.  I think I’ll make a page for the study of The Anatomy of Story on my website.

In the meantime, please join me at Heidi Betts’ WIPS and Chains blog:

http://www.heidibetts.com/wipsandchains/

Today, she’s interviewed me.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 4:27 pm and is filed under News, Thoughts on Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.