Simply Staring at the Water

 This week's quotation, by Bengali poet and writer, Rabindranath Tagore, says, "You cannot cross an ocean by simply staring at the water."

And it made me realise that is what I have spent most of the time since Christmas doing. At least so far as my writing is concerned. Towards the end of 2020, I felt I had got the first volume more or less done, and started on volume 2. By the end of December, I had written the first eleven chapters, nearly 40,000 words, and with each additional chapter, I felt more and more unhappy. The well of inspiration was running dry.

I started to fiddle around with those eleven chapters, re-writing scenes, changing this, altering that. But none of it worked. I realised I hadn't got a clue where I wanted the story to go, and that I really didn't like one of the new characters I'd introduced and couldn't think how she was going to further the story. Had I bitten off more than I could chew? It was clear that just trying to bull through wasn't working. Each scene became increasingly difficult to write, and after a couple of weeks, I was ready to give up.

So I started to listen to American writer Brandon Sanderson's latest series of lectures on writing science fiction and fantasy, from which I've learned heaps. And this time (he posts them on YouTube each year) as I listened to the two lectures on character, I finally understood how I could stop staring at the water and get writing again. He explained that each scene has to be written in the light of the character's motivations. So in the middle of this week, I spent my entire rest day writing character arcs for my ten main characters. As I wrote, new ideas began to come, and now I have a much better idea of where I'm going. So I'm working my way back through volume 1 to make sure each scene moves the point of view character along, and am going to completely rewrite those eleven chapters. All sorts of exciting possibilities are spinning round my brain, and I have my writing mojo back.

It is said that a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. And sometimes, that first step is the most difficult one to make. It helps if we have a map, or at least some idea of our destination. And the motivation to get up and walk out of the door. It can be so tempting to stay in, huddle under our blankets and choose not to change. But I believe that it is always, always worth it. If we are to live our lives to the full, we have to stop staring at the water, and dip our toes into that ocean.