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Writing -- the mind's inertia.
Mar. 8th, 2004 07:48 pmLast year, I got a new life as a writer of stories on commission. If you are interested, you can read about how it all started here.
So -- after I wrote that first story, I put my service up on an online auction, and got three takers. Each time I began a story my Inner Critic (and that's the polite term) tried to to browbeat me into believing I couldn't do it -- that I wasn't good enough. Once I got over that first hurtle and actually began the story, however, I was energized, and my brain started clicking -- even when several starts were false ones. Well, the first two stories were "normal" -- i.e., just what I expected to write: stories for folks to enjoy in the privacy of their own homes, with their own families. In such a private setting, this does not count as "publication," (making public) so I retain all rights to these stories, for selling to magazines, or what have you. The third person, however, wanted me to write a story that she can perform at storytelling festivals around Britain, and that raised a whole other set of questions that woke my Inner Critic up again: "This does count as publication! If you agree to write a story for her to tell, will this prevent you from publishing how you want to in the States? And if you sell a subset of your rights, which subset do you sell? Does such a subset for just-reciting-aloud-around-a-campfire even exist?" and so forth.
The benefits of such a contract (spreading my name to new audiences, writing a story with greater discipline required -- must be of limited length) outweighs the risks, though, so I agreed to take it on. However, the mental inertia (screaming of my inner critic) was especially potent, in part because the woman in question doesn't need the story until the summer...
All of this is background to my main news of the day: This afternoon, I finished the synopsis of the story, and kept it down to 200 words!
:::cheering from the gallery of voices in my head:::
And again, dread and inertia was changed to enthusiasm, and energy...
Why can't I remember this feeling when I go to start a new story?
So -- after I wrote that first story, I put my service up on an online auction, and got three takers. Each time I began a story my Inner Critic (and that's the polite term) tried to to browbeat me into believing I couldn't do it -- that I wasn't good enough. Once I got over that first hurtle and actually began the story, however, I was energized, and my brain started clicking -- even when several starts were false ones. Well, the first two stories were "normal" -- i.e., just what I expected to write: stories for folks to enjoy in the privacy of their own homes, with their own families. In such a private setting, this does not count as "publication," (making public) so I retain all rights to these stories, for selling to magazines, or what have you. The third person, however, wanted me to write a story that she can perform at storytelling festivals around Britain, and that raised a whole other set of questions that woke my Inner Critic up again: "This does count as publication! If you agree to write a story for her to tell, will this prevent you from publishing how you want to in the States? And if you sell a subset of your rights, which subset do you sell? Does such a subset for just-reciting-aloud-around-a-campfire even exist?" and so forth.
The benefits of such a contract (spreading my name to new audiences, writing a story with greater discipline required -- must be of limited length) outweighs the risks, though, so I agreed to take it on. However, the mental inertia (screaming of my inner critic) was especially potent, in part because the woman in question doesn't need the story until the summer...
All of this is background to my main news of the day: This afternoon, I finished the synopsis of the story, and kept it down to 200 words!
:::cheering from the gallery of voices in my head:::
And again, dread and inertia was changed to enthusiasm, and energy...
Why can't I remember this feeling when I go to start a new story?
