Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Tell the truth Tuesday-ish

So the partner-in-crime has an obnoxious way of pointing out very obnoxious truths. Case in point:

Me: Hey, read a few pages of my story.
P-i-C: Sure thing, babycakes (my P-i-C does not, in fact, talk like this, but I'm taking artistic license). Reads pages. Uh, I don't really know what's going on here, I think I'm just going to have to read the whole thing.
Me: You can't.
P-i-C: Why not?
Me: Because I don't want you to. It's not a genre you're familiar with, and it's told from the perspective of a seventeen year old girl. I don't think you'll like it.
P-i-C: Babycakes, you've already explained the plot to me and it sounds awesome. (A brief lull in which he describes the plotline which I won't share here for top secret's sake). What's not to love?

Annoying truth number one. Because he's totally right. In fact, the last story I wrote was told from the perspective of a much younger girl and he loved it. So then I have to ask myself, as his obnoxious questions often make me, why don't I really want him reading it? And then it hit me this morning: I know it's not good. It's an awesome idea, and with a lot of work I have the potential to make it an awesome book, but it's not good enough right now. But it's so haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard to write, I don't want to do it again. I want it to come out awesome the first time, like making a souffle (which is totally easy, right? Right?!?)

Which brings me to obnoxious truth number two:

Me: Look, I'm a seat of the pantser, I can't be held down to preconceived outlines. I figure out the story as I go along. Now I've got the whole thing figured out (mind you, I'm only halfway or so through the written WIP) I'll just finish it up, go back and write an outline of what I really want, and then rewrite it.
P-i-C: That sounds like an awful lot of work. Why don't you just outline it now and rework the parts that don't work?
Me: Because that's stupid. And you're stupid. And this whole courtroom is out of order.
P-i-C: I'm not sure about that last part, but if you want my two cents, I think it would be a lot easier to outline it now than to finish something you think you won't use.

You see how sneaky he is? I don't know why I put up with it. Especially when he's probably right (look, I know he's right, okay? I'm just not ready to admit it yet). I'm still struggling with that last thing because I'm such a pantser. I get antsy and bored and feel like time is rushing away from me when I'm outlining and not actually writing. And yeah, okay, I get that the outline will help my writing tremendously, but I don't want to dooooooooooo it. Which concludes our tell the truth Tuesday-ish blog with his third, and possibly most obnoxious, truth:

P-i-C: You said you just wanted to tell the best possible story you could, right? Well, won't this help you do that?

Benders.

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