It is all phenomenal

 

in your head.

Writing is fun, however it is also work. I can think of a thousand stories and they run rampant inside my brain for hours, days, weeks, years, but putting them on paper can be difficult.

And I am not talking about the physical act of forcing myself to sit at a keyboard, which can be difficult too. I am talking about to make that phenomenal story work you have to make it realistic, believable, coherent (that helps), and a whole of host either points to be made, or keeps the readers attention, to keeping facts in line and drama that must be cohesive to create a story from start to finish.

I spent half a day doing research for a story I am writing. And then you start questioning how much research must be done. What is enough that a reader feels the information in the story is believable and based in some reality without boring them with details that have nothing to do with the story. And all this research only moved about half a chapter along.

And then no matter what, somehow somewhere someway you will still miss something. This is the intangible miss. What works for one reader, may only partially work or not work at all for another reader. What is too much, not just research, but story, description, dialogue or fiction? Yes, can you have too much fiction in a story. I think so. There are all these lines to be drawn, characters to be developed, stories within the story to get to where you, the author, thinks it should be. Yet again, not every reader is going to be on the same page as you.

With some physical work you know when you are successful. You can clean a window and look through it with a light behind it to see if you missed a spot or there is a streak or smudge. Everyone can see the window and pretty much come to the same conclusion it is clean or needs more work. With a story, that doesn’t happen.  Someone will be glad to tell you there is a smudge or mud spot or the edges are smeared in a story, but everyone sees it differently. And you do need to have someone or a few people point those out, but they didn’t write the story and their interpretation may not be how you want the story to be read.

In some ways writers and authors who stick to a genre can find an audience and that audience can understand a clearer picture of what you are trying to say. And yes they may have some research to do, but with sticking to this genre they know exactly how much glass cleaner to put on to clear up the spots. And over time their research is already built in to what they are doing. For example Tom Clancy became very adept in writing stories like “Hunt for Red October”. He had very specific research he could do to flesh out his story and make it very realistic for his readers. And then there is authors like Stephen King, hard to say what kind of research he did to write “The Shining”. Did he visit old hotels, study mental illness or what? I am suspecting he did some of both and much more to make “The Shining” so impactful. And he can fall back on years of writing in one genre every time he writes a new book. Somewhere early on though he had to break through that invisible barrier to find the ability to make sure his window was clean for his readers.

And professional writers have the same problem in a different way. Their audience knows the topic. They have to research in great detail and cannot have gaps or glaring errors. And then there are people who have to write for one person. Much of what attorneys write is for a judge. And each judge has their own personality. Do successful attorneys study not only the law, but also the judge?

I enjoy writing. Even after spending half a day researching it was a joy to flesh out the story with the details I included. Once I got started it was two hours later before I knew it. Yet for the life of me I have no idea what people are going to see. Or most likely people may never even see the window. And if they do, can they see my complete picture? Or what points or thoughts are covered up by inconsistencies or incorrect research or is just boring. I cannot see that because in my mind it is all phenomenal.

 

And switching gears I am struggling with the upcoming debate on Thursday. I do not like expressing negative thoughts or desires for people to fail. Yet I am hoping that my prediction that both Trump and Biden are going to come across as two old farts that cannot keep it together come true so the Republicans and Democrats are forced to do the right thing and give us two new candidates. I still won’t vote for either, but since so many of my fellow countrymen and women are stuck in the duopoly’s rut I can at least hope for better choices for the people that will vote Democrat or Republican until they come to their senses and realize we need new major parties. Who knows maybe the MAGA/GOP fissure may end up creating a center right party that comes up with some practical public policy, especially in regards to our economic situation. We need to cut spending, shake up the tax code, build in better protections for consumers since corporations are overly focused on stock price, not their actual business and customer. And as you know I could go on. Anyway I bet most of you aren’t going to watch anyway, but even though I hate being negative I hope this event is one big eye opening failure.

Cheers