The Feel of a Word
Apr. 11th, 2006 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katiefooleryI have the closing scene of a story in my head. This is a very good thing indeed. Whenever I know where I'm headed in a story, I write well. I write exceedingly well, in fact (if I just bid a quick farewell to humility). The reason for this is obvious, of course: if I know where I'm headed, then all my words need to do is point in the right direction. When I don't know where I'm going, my words are forced to tell the story and try to work out where they should be going as well. Not all words can multitask like that.
Two of my favourite stories, Revel and Ever Again, had their closing lines firmly established in my head before I began and look how they turned out. Revel won me five hundred dollars and Ever Again came seventh in an international SF/F writing competition.
Yes, I think I can safely say that it definitely pays to know where you're going before you start your story.
Alas, not all ideas come with a complimentary closing scene. Many of them are just dangled across my imagination, with the promise of a good story if I just start writing it. And at least half of those stutter to a stop half-way through, when I find myself lost without hope of being rescued. Sometimes, I can come back later, armed with a better map with which to navigate my way to safety.
Sometimes, I fear, those stories are lost forever, taking their fleeting glory down a road from which there is no return.
However, this story in my head not only comes with a closing scene, it also has a word that sounds delicious and that feels solid when I utter it. There are some words that I love, just for the sound they make and the way they feel in my mouth as I utter them. The word in this case is "sark". Now, I know that it's already a Channel Island and half the name of a famous clipper, but I don't care. In my imagination, it stands strong and dark and full of malicious promise. It is not simply a word - it is a story in its own right; a story I can't wait to write.
I think this is why authors quail a little when people ask where their ideas come from. What would people think if, upon asking me that question, they received the following answer?
It's not exactly an exciting explanation, is it?
Then again, I think the best thing about a writer's mind is its ability to find a story out of anything, no matter how oblique the connection.
Two of my favourite stories, Revel and Ever Again, had their closing lines firmly established in my head before I began and look how they turned out. Revel won me five hundred dollars and Ever Again came seventh in an international SF/F writing competition.
Yes, I think I can safely say that it definitely pays to know where you're going before you start your story.
Alas, not all ideas come with a complimentary closing scene. Many of them are just dangled across my imagination, with the promise of a good story if I just start writing it. And at least half of those stutter to a stop half-way through, when I find myself lost without hope of being rescued. Sometimes, I can come back later, armed with a better map with which to navigate my way to safety.
Sometimes, I fear, those stories are lost forever, taking their fleeting glory down a road from which there is no return.
However, this story in my head not only comes with a closing scene, it also has a word that sounds delicious and that feels solid when I utter it. There are some words that I love, just for the sound they make and the way they feel in my mouth as I utter them. The word in this case is "sark". Now, I know that it's already a Channel Island and half the name of a famous clipper, but I don't care. In my imagination, it stands strong and dark and full of malicious promise. It is not simply a word - it is a story in its own right; a story I can't wait to write.
I think this is why authors quail a little when people ask where their ideas come from. What would people think if, upon asking me that question, they received the following answer?
| "Well, I was just making the bed when I started thinking of words I like and I began saying "sark" out loud. And then I wondered what a "sark" actually was, apart from being an island and half a ship's name. And that's where the story came from." |
It's not exactly an exciting explanation, is it?
Then again, I think the best thing about a writer's mind is its ability to find a story out of anything, no matter how oblique the connection.