"But our creativity comes out to play when we have no idea what we’re doing. This is not always a comfortable feeling. Most of us like feeling competent. I mean, if I’m a writer, shouldn’t I know what I’m doing when I write?" -- Oof, it's like you were in my head!
LOVE THIS! I was just wondering the other day if someone would fact-check my reference to the type of funeral flowers available in Whitehorse in January of 1996. HA! It brings me relief that we have all been there. And, as always, great advice to "Write the book that calls to you now". It's called on you for a reason, right? Thank you for the reminder. (And yes, I will still call a florist in Whitehorse and ask about fresh flower availability in January...)
I would totally look up a detail like that in my own writing and not even notice if it was accurate in someone else's. :)
Verisimilitude is great and it's totally reasonable, as writers, to ask ourselves the question "is this flower availability remotely possible?" It starts getting unreasonable when we find ourselves unable to move forward unless we confirm a detail that ultimately makes no difference to the plot and could be changed to a reasonable guess or placeholder to be fact-checked much later.
Unless, of course, the entire plot of your book hangs upon a particular flower selection....
Oh boy…it’s good, in a perverse sort of way, to realize that this is a common struggle…and solidarity in that. But damn…perfectionism can be such a pisser. Thanks for another great read Sonal.
YES. Yes so many times. "Precious might be re-arranging the pillows three or four times to get it just so in order to sleep. Perfectionists don’t sleep."
I felt this bit in my bones. And then I laughed, because I both arrange pillows to get comfy, AND I read more books than most people I know ˆbecauseˆI don't sleep. Or at least not as well as most other people.
This is where I get tangled up -- when the things that we drive ourselves crazy about as writers get tied to the things we think make us good writers. The obsessing about names and choosing the right one is something I notice in books, but I am so with you that I have never fact checked a weather report in my life, certainly not in fiction. (Isn't that the point of fiction??)
Your point about rewriting a book that's been lost feels apt here too: not only is the rewritten lost book a different book, the book that isn't a torturous one written by our perfectionist selves is a different book, too. After reading this, I am wondering if perhaps it might also be a better book? The thought that it could be makes me giddy. Thank you!
I have a bad habit of using (the same) placeholder names that end up being final names because now I have a character attached.... so many Kevins. Everyone's a Kevin. Kevin apparently contains multitudes.
But I have one character in my novel who's name I must change, because it's Karen, and I started writing it long before 'Karen' became a thing, and it reads like being an on-the-nose commentary when it's no. So whether I'm attached or not, it has to change because it carries too much baggage. Will it look weird to me? Yes, because in my head she's forever Karen. Will it look weird to the reader? Unlikely. They will only ever know her as whatever I end up calling her.
It may very well be a better book. You might not have been ready as a writer to write that book when you first started it. So being forced to let it go may be the best thing for you.
Hahaha on Kevin! It's like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon but just Kevin.
Would it feel different if she was Karin rather than Karen? Not sure if that solves it, but it made me realize how different those two feel, even if they sound the same...
And I'm certain it will be a better book. Being forced to let go of previous versions has always been a long-term win, even if it the moment it feels like a stubbed toe, or getting a wax after a reallllly long time. Ouch.
"But our creativity comes out to play when we have no idea what we’re doing. This is not always a comfortable feeling. Most of us like feeling competent. I mean, if I’m a writer, shouldn’t I know what I’m doing when I write?" -- Oof, it's like you were in my head!
I know what's in your head because it's been in my head. :)
LOVE THIS! I was just wondering the other day if someone would fact-check my reference to the type of funeral flowers available in Whitehorse in January of 1996. HA! It brings me relief that we have all been there. And, as always, great advice to "Write the book that calls to you now". It's called on you for a reason, right? Thank you for the reminder. (And yes, I will still call a florist in Whitehorse and ask about fresh flower availability in January...)
I would totally look up a detail like that in my own writing and not even notice if it was accurate in someone else's. :)
Verisimilitude is great and it's totally reasonable, as writers, to ask ourselves the question "is this flower availability remotely possible?" It starts getting unreasonable when we find ourselves unable to move forward unless we confirm a detail that ultimately makes no difference to the plot and could be changed to a reasonable guess or placeholder to be fact-checked much later.
Unless, of course, the entire plot of your book hangs upon a particular flower selection....
Oh boy…it’s good, in a perverse sort of way, to realize that this is a common struggle…and solidarity in that. But damn…perfectionism can be such a pisser. Thanks for another great read Sonal.
Thanks for reading!
YES. Yes so many times. "Precious might be re-arranging the pillows three or four times to get it just so in order to sleep. Perfectionists don’t sleep."
I felt this bit in my bones. And then I laughed, because I both arrange pillows to get comfy, AND I read more books than most people I know ˆbecauseˆI don't sleep. Or at least not as well as most other people.
This is where I get tangled up -- when the things that we drive ourselves crazy about as writers get tied to the things we think make us good writers. The obsessing about names and choosing the right one is something I notice in books, but I am so with you that I have never fact checked a weather report in my life, certainly not in fiction. (Isn't that the point of fiction??)
Your point about rewriting a book that's been lost feels apt here too: not only is the rewritten lost book a different book, the book that isn't a torturous one written by our perfectionist selves is a different book, too. After reading this, I am wondering if perhaps it might also be a better book? The thought that it could be makes me giddy. Thank you!
I have a bad habit of using (the same) placeholder names that end up being final names because now I have a character attached.... so many Kevins. Everyone's a Kevin. Kevin apparently contains multitudes.
But I have one character in my novel who's name I must change, because it's Karen, and I started writing it long before 'Karen' became a thing, and it reads like being an on-the-nose commentary when it's no. So whether I'm attached or not, it has to change because it carries too much baggage. Will it look weird to me? Yes, because in my head she's forever Karen. Will it look weird to the reader? Unlikely. They will only ever know her as whatever I end up calling her.
It may very well be a better book. You might not have been ready as a writer to write that book when you first started it. So being forced to let it go may be the best thing for you.
Hahaha on Kevin! It's like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon but just Kevin.
Would it feel different if she was Karin rather than Karen? Not sure if that solves it, but it made me realize how different those two feel, even if they sound the same...
And I'm certain it will be a better book. Being forced to let go of previous versions has always been a long-term win, even if it the moment it feels like a stubbed toe, or getting a wax after a reallllly long time. Ouch.