50 at 50 Part 2: Back to the Future

[image error]I’ve spent years and years learning to write (and I’m not claiming to have arrived). From how to use viewpoint,  evoke atmosphere, create characters that breathe to when to use an exclamation mark, why to avoid dangling gerunds and what to leave under the surface.

But ideas for stories come all the time and, while anyone can learn to write, I’m not sure you can learn how to have an idea. Ideas are more precious than writing technique because I never know when they’re going to arrive, and because they’re unique – no one else will have that idea in the same way.

So what happens to ideas that come before you’ve learned to write? Stephen King says stories are already there, in the ground, and that writers are archeologists, they unearth them. I used to think that the better writers got given the better stories, perhaps because they knew better where to look. But lately I’ve started thinking that maybe it’s more about the better writers can make even the most mundane of bones into something.

I’ve spent the last three weeks re-writing a feature-length film script and it’s been so much fun. Fun because I’m not attached to it – hadn’t even read it in the intervening years. It’s been like reuniting with an old friend, but one who’s changed so much since I saw them last.

It’s been heart-warming too, because I can see how I’ve improved. I can tsk-tsk my old, uneducated ways, but kindly, because I know I’m not that fledgling writer any more. I don’t take it personally.

I’m not saying that you should always wait eight years after writing something to start the editing process. The standard advice is five weeks. But maybe some ideas take longer to dig up than others. Sometimes you don’t see what you have at the time. Sometimes ideas are ahead of their time and they have to wait for you, or for the world, to catch up.

If you want to join in my year of living creatively... this week's homework is to revisit the past - whether it's an old project, an old photograph, an old place. Dig out something you haven't thought about for a long time and have a look at how its changed with time. Do you feel any differently about it now? Does it inspire you to add to it, make changes, send it to someone?

Let me know how you get on in the comments section.