Familiarity

To begin, yes, I missed a week. Life interrupted me. however, I am back with some more thoughts.

As the title implies, I want to look at familiarity. Recently, I have seen a lot of posts in some of the writer-oriented pages I’m a member of that have people calling out for help. Some commenters have bagged these people. Some have used words of encouragement to answer the pleas. Either way it raised an interesting though in me.

I certainly understand the struggles of a variety of issues. Not being able to find the right beginning or ending. The feeling that your characters need more depth, or not.

For me, it’s all about familiarity. It’s about knowing your story inside out and back to front. Almost to the point of being able to quote it in your sleep. Or accidentally to friends in conversation.

So, how familiar are you with your story?

If it is difficult to answer that question with conviction, then perhaps the story needs to be put aside while it mulls away inside your head for a bit longer. Doesn’t mean you abandon it, it simply means you may need more time to assimilate the whole story into your writing psyche until it results in a fuller, richer, more complete tale.

I may have mentioned this before, but the first story I published, which is currently waiting a re-edit, had a hiatus of about nine years before it was finished. Yet the part that kept tripping me up was neither the start nor the finish, they were written. It was a part in between to move from once section to another. It occurred about two-thirds of the way through the story. The only thing that got me moving at the time was the fact that a work colleague discovered I wrote stories and wanted to read it. Even before she got a third of the way through, she was badgering me to finish the story because she knew she wanted to read it all. (She knew it was unfinished and that she only had the first two-thirds.) I sat down at my computer and a few weeks later, it was done.

Okay, I think I just called the pot black. Yes, people will throw back at me that I wasn’t familiar enough with my story. I actually don’t think that was the problem at the time. For me I simply couldn’t write for that period of time. I had a massive bout of writer’s block, which others will say is a load of cattle generated garden manure.

I knew my story. I knew my characters. Yet I couldn’t see past that point to join up to the two sections. I do remember thinking that I felt I had a weak outline for that part and it may have been that which prevented me from looking for options. Needless to say, I got through it, finished the story and made my colleague happy.

It’s November 1, the start of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and the piece I’m working on has been on the cards for several years. I know the story because I’ve changed it quite a few times over the past couple of years. I’m writing the balance of the story this month. 50000 words (minimum) over the next 30 days. If I don’t get t finished, I will simply keep on going until I do.

Know your story. Know your characters. You’re your story’s environment. Be familiar. Write that story!