8:32 and I've done nothing tonight. It was nice to open up the novel and see "Do you want to start where you left off yesterday."
The thing is that (oh, and its 8:45 now)that writing isn't just a "let's make something up" kind of deal because there is no "making things up". When you are in a dream and it's scary, or worse it's wonderful, you really feel those things. Damn, when you read a book, especially a thriller or a love story, you have to turn the page and you feel all the emotions that these make believe people are feeling. Well, it's like that when you're writing, only it's ten times worse. And even though you are all sorts of anti-anxiety and anti-depression pills the damn characters aren't. So, as the writer you feel right through all your medications exactly what the characters are feeling. And you know what's even worse? You know what they don't. So you feel it when you think it, and then you feel it the whole time you're setting them up.
And then you know - at least HOPE(?) - that what you've written will come true for many different people. Think about Lord of the Flies (SPOILER ALERT) William Golding knew before everyone what would happen to Piggy. In fact, he made it happen. He pushed that rock off the cliff. He made sure it hit Piggy hard enough to knock him down, 40 feet to the beach so the ocean can wash him out.
Not only that. William Golding knew that each one of us reading that book would kill Piggy over and over again. Think about it. If you stop reading the book before it happens, then the rest of the story doesn't take place. But each time someone reads the damn book, the same thing happens, and poor Piggy, the only voice of civility on that crooked island, dies. There is no version of the book where he lives.
So as I'm writing the Climax of this story I know that once it's written (9:12 now) it is going to stick forever. The shit these people are going to go through is not going to happen just the one time I'm reporting it, but it's going to happen again and again and again ad infinitum.
Here's a great song by Ted Allen
Don't Touch My Heart
The thing is that (oh, and its 8:45 now)that writing isn't just a "let's make something up" kind of deal because there is no "making things up". When you are in a dream and it's scary, or worse it's wonderful, you really feel those things. Damn, when you read a book, especially a thriller or a love story, you have to turn the page and you feel all the emotions that these make believe people are feeling. Well, it's like that when you're writing, only it's ten times worse. And even though you are all sorts of anti-anxiety and anti-depression pills the damn characters aren't. So, as the writer you feel right through all your medications exactly what the characters are feeling. And you know what's even worse? You know what they don't. So you feel it when you think it, and then you feel it the whole time you're setting them up.
And then you know - at least HOPE(?) - that what you've written will come true for many different people. Think about Lord of the Flies (SPOILER ALERT) William Golding knew before everyone what would happen to Piggy. In fact, he made it happen. He pushed that rock off the cliff. He made sure it hit Piggy hard enough to knock him down, 40 feet to the beach so the ocean can wash him out.
Not only that. William Golding knew that each one of us reading that book would kill Piggy over and over again. Think about it. If you stop reading the book before it happens, then the rest of the story doesn't take place. But each time someone reads the damn book, the same thing happens, and poor Piggy, the only voice of civility on that crooked island, dies. There is no version of the book where he lives.
So as I'm writing the Climax of this story I know that once it's written (9:12 now) it is going to stick forever. The shit these people are going to go through is not going to happen just the one time I'm reporting it, but it's going to happen again and again and again ad infinitum.
Here's a great song by Ted Allen
Don't Touch My Heart
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