Where Are the Words…

If you break down a story to its barest form you might argue it is character, plot, conflict. But I am going to go even further and say it all comes down to the simplest form of all.

Words.

Obvious? Maybe, but at its core, you don’t have a story without words. And while that seems simple, for a writer it can be downright painful.

Sometimes you are in the zone and words spill out of you like a waterfall. That is glorious position to be in. But many times depending on what is going on in your life, words can escape a writer. Like taking clay away from a sculptor or brushes from a painter.

So what do you do in this situation? It depends. Sometimes, you can give yourself a break and then the words come back to you. But oftentimes you have a deadline to meet and those words need to come.

For me, when I’m stuck I bargain with myself. Write 500 words – you can do it. Just 500 words tonight to get something down on the computer screen. The irony about this (at least for me) is that the first 500 words are the hardest for me to write. Once I get past that, the words seem to flow better for me.

So my hope is that if I get those 500 words down, I will keep going. It worked the last two days, clocking in a 1000 words each day on my current story.

Let’s see if I can get it to work tonight as well. And no, I don’t get to count the words in this blog toward my 500 – I already thought about it and had to chastise myself before I let the idea take root!

Write on!