Writing Secrets

Ho and hum. Yet another new book on "how to write". The eight helpful hints are old hat and like a good writer, you merely write the same old same old but with a new twist. Writing is all about twists. I ran with some writing wolves for a short time and during their two day sleep-over session as successful authors, they spent most of it drinking cheap wine and putting out plots more plentiful than the finger foods while dreaming up ways of twisting plots. Let's see "you come down to the hotel bar after a session with your lover and..." Fill that one in. Easy? It's easy to fill in the blank but it's the complications arising from it that befoul the entire plot. Did the spouse enter? Did the lover fall over suddenly with a heart attack? Was the grown offspring sitting in the dark corner table? Did the spouse of your lover enter with a loaded gun pointed straight at your gin and tonic? The number of twists and their implications are innumerable. How to write? My answer would be to sit down and do it. Just let it flow and keep on flowing. Never mind the tense, the spell check, the punctuation for the moment. Let the ideas run rampant. When you're in the mood, you can't go wrong. You'll know when you're done. The last sentence is a lesson in itself. (I know pedants who will go on for hours about the use of "you're done" but it doesn't change a thing.) After reaching the end of the pile of blank paper or page 75, whichever comes first, rip it out, put the pile of pages somewhere and come back the next day. Next session, don't think about what you wrote yesterday, just begin writing and keep on going. Do this until you finally have something meaningful to write about. After all, Erato has been busy in the back of your head ever since you started "writing" and her nagging has set you to wondering about THAT idea. While pouring out random verbiage, your IDEA has been gelling and you are almost ready to begin the tale. You are exercised. The Tale is writing itself. All writing is The Tale, even non-fiction. You are writing for others as well as yourself, therefore, just like you, you want a Tale. You want something that begins and ends so that you can feel satisfied. You start with an idea, let it develop as you go, and then come to a lovely conclusion. The agony of editing comes when it's all done - okay, finished. That is all. That is the secret of writing. As they say in the gym, just do it.