Writing Questions to Ask Yourself as You Edit

Everyone has something that motivates them to keep going, keep tapping away on that keyboard or scribbling in that journal. And hearing what inspires others is a great motivator, so here are some of the reasons why NaNo Participant Sarah C. keeps coming back to her writing:

Questions always come up when I’m writing. Who is this character? What do they want? Look like? How do they grow and how do I show that change happen in them? I’ve used the words “shrugged” and “sighed” how many times? 

One of the questions, inevitably, is “Why am I even doing this?” Sometimes it’s a relatively cheery moment of self reflection: Why do I write? What is it that drives me to write? But at some point, usually around the halfway mark, I hit that place where I stare in horror at what I’ve written—characters that don’t sound like they did in my head, characters who are doing things I didn’t actually want them to do,  prose that reads more like a confused instruction manual, that same question becomes a little more panicked, and more than a tad gloomy. “Oh no…what have I done? Why am I even doing this?”

I’ve always wanted to write. I wrote all the time when I was a kid and a teenager. Stories, poems, plays…Then, at some point, I just stopped, without really noticing I’d stopped. I let go of it, thinking of it as something I’d get back to eventually. Years went by and I still kept thinking, “eventually." 

“I love to ask questions as I write, and I love the new and sometimes odd questions that writing itself generates.”

My first year trying NaNoWriMo brought me back to writing, and I haven’t been able to stop since. Even when it feels impossible, I can’t let go of the characters I have in my head, or the settings, or the idea that I could try to create something that feels close enough to how I imagined it in my daydreams. 

And, I think a lot of it comes back to questions. I love to ask questions as I write, and I love the new and sometimes odd questions that writing itself generates. One of my current works in progress is historical fiction, which has me doing research on things I would never have thought to do research on. And beyond that, the deeper questions about the characters themselves. Who are they, really? How can I make them feel more real? Where can I add layers, how can I make them more complex? And how in the world do I translate that to the page? 

It can be a frustrating endeavor, to be sure! But also, I can’t help thinking, so very worthwhile. In the coming "Now What?” months I know I will catch myself wondering, again, why I am doing this? And the answer I have to give myself is, in all its over simplicity, because I love it. Those years I spent not writing were some of the hardest of my life, for a multitude of reasons, but I know a big part of that must have been because I shut away the part of myself that loves to write.

There is something about allowing ourselves to go into other worlds of our own making. Going into these worlds that are perhaps not fully formed, that are just glimmers of ideas, a feeling and nothing else. We go to these places and we help that idea grow. Every question we ask of the idea will help it grow. Ask your characters who they are and what they want. Explore the answers that come up. Now is a great time to slow down, and really reflect. Ask questions, nurture your idea, and nurture that part of yourself that wants to create and that has something to say.  It matters! 

Good luck and happy writing!

Sarah is a lifelong New Englander and three time NaNo participant who has loved writing for as long as she can remember. She graduated from Goddard College with a degree focusing on horror stories and underworld mythologies. Her favorite things to read, write, and watch tend to lean pretty heavily toward Gothic melodramatic antics. When she isn’t writing (or at work) she’s probably daydreaming, reading biographies about her favorite troubled oddballs, or attempting to learn how to roller skate. 

Top photo by Danielle MacInnes via Unsplash.