We Have Always Lived in the Castle...

August 26, 2014

"On the moon we spoke a soft, liquid tongue, and sang in the starlight, looking down on the dead dried world.” ~ Shirley Jackson

One day I went to the store.  Nothing at all interesting, just a mid-day stop for some essentials: coffee for the husband and jerky treats for the pup. 

On my way out I quite surprisingly ran into a gentleman who I had not seen in years.  Our paths crossed by happenstance, both stenograhy students at the same college, both ardent lovers of words.  And, of course, both of us writers. 

He has published a few Indie novels as well, mostly fantasy fiction, along the same vein as a J.R.R. Tolkien read.  He'd received great reviews on Amazon and was in the process of starting another. (In case you're curious, his name is S. Arthur Martin; check out his stuff if fantasy fiction is your thing). 

We briefly caught up on our recent goings on and of course talked about our current writing projects.  He had mentioned that sometimes he often re-read some of his older works and cringed, always imagining how he would re-write it to make it sound better, or clean something up.  I agreed with him, that I often do that too, and then told him that, "Being a writer is not a destination, it's a journey."

For some reason, the last week or so that's really stuck with me.  And I think that confusion is the cause for aspiring writers to not take the "plunge" and publish.  Not because they can't or no longer have the means to (the face of the publishing industry is changing every day; there are more options and resources available to Indie writers than there used to be) but it's because they believe that, in order to be a "writer," that first published book needs to be something that will be taught in college lecture halls decades from now; that it needs to be a book that will change the world. 

Those are lofty ambitions, no? 

Creative types tend to be perfectionists and, while that's a wonderful thing, it's not conducive to actually being a contributing member of the writing community.  While attention must be paid to a certain degree to the absolute quality of your work, there has to be a point in time where you let it go, come hell or high water, out into the world.  

Sink or swim.  And move onto the next.

Honing your writing craft is (or rather should be) continuously changing.  Never static.  I'm at this point in my writing career where I have my "formula" down pat.  I have a system that works for me, a method to my madness, and I'm getting comfortable in my writing, punching down the words and creating yet another product.  I've become a producer; my readers have come to expect a certain product from me, a certain formula.  And they love it; that's why they buy my books.  But, while I give my passion to everything I pen, I feel a certain freedom unbound by expectations.  The element of the unexpected, the beauty of a surprise.

And then I read my favorite Shirley Jackson story, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, yet again.  And a fire lit inside my belly, as it always does when I feel I've stumbled across something exciting and monumental.

The idea of an unreliable first-person narrator has never been something that I have done.  Everything I've ever written has been third person, omniscient.  The reader knows almost everything that the protagonist does.  Is Merricat just an imaginative young woman or is she mad?

So that is my next long-ranged project goal.  To write a piece of fiction that is completely unlike anything I've ever written before.  I may finish it and discover that I just spent a lot of time creating something that should never see the light of day.  Or it may surprise me and turn out to be a great read.

Either way, the point of this tale is to push yourself out beyond your boundaries: constantly.  Don't get too comfortable in your mode of writing that you're afraid to take any risks.  Keep your readers guessing.  And most importantly, write what you are passionate about.  You will eventually find a readership, no matter how strange your subject is.  Stay true to what makes you feel, what makes you cry, what excites you, even if you feel that no one else will ever take an interest in it.

Even the most obscure minds have lovers somewhere...

~ Angela Darling

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