A storm blew through my area recently and left this accidentally beautiful debris. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the writing process.
Sometimes we wonder how the apparently genius brains of our favorite authors come up with amazing plot turns or beautiful lines of prose.
The answer is:
often by accident
But of course, that answer gives way too little credit without a full explanation.
What I mean to say is that great writers do 2 things well:
They don’t criticize their mistakes too harshly (most of the time).
They follow their brain's bread crumbs.
The first skill refers to a writer’s ability to smirk at their mistakes rather than wrinkle their nose at them. Writers are notoriously their own worst critics and can sometimes let their frustration with their fallible humanity get in the way of seeing humor or even ideas in their blunders.
Sometimes a typo can lead to a more creative turn of phrase. Sometimes an inconsistency in characterization can lead to a better idea for a character arc. If you’re too busy beating yourself up about messing up, you won’t see the nugget of gold lying in the trash heap.
The second skill refers to a writer’s ability to follow clues their brain is sending them. Some authors use woo woo ways of referencing this instinct (like following their muse) but at the core of it is a capacity to wander purposefully.
The subconscious is a wonderful thing. It synthesizes ideas and emotions lurking in the backs of our minds to lead us to epiphanies. In a real sense, the eureka ideas great writers come up with are no accident. They’re the culmination of experience and contemplation. It should be noted though, that it’s hard to grasp onto them if we don’t give our imaginations time to wander. You need time to wander in the landscapes of your fictitious world and the hearts of your blooming characters.
That’s not to say you should spend all your time dreaming and none of your time writing. It does mean however that you should be intentional about the types of experiences, books, and conversations you feed your brain on a regular basis. This will serve as invaluable fodder when setting aside time to ponder.
Some writers do their pondering at the beginning of their writing session, some do it at the end, and some schedule pockets of time during their day when they’ll do nothing but be present and think. (With this latter strategy, doing something physical like taking a walk helps keep the temptation to phone scroll to a minimum.)
Bottom line: It’s crucial to build rumination time into the writing process.
This is key step if you want to infuse accidental genius into your writing. So the next time you find a glaring mistake in your writing, give yourself some grace and time to meditate.
There might just be a best-selling idea in there. 😉
Comments