Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Rumpelstiltskin

I've started working on a YA mystery I've had in mind for a long time, and people the writing is going sloooooooowly. Everything coming out of my fingers feels so dull, so flat, so unspecial. How can that perfect book in your head be so very imperfect on paper?

This is where writing becomes an act of faith. You gotta believe if you just keep filling up the tower room with straw, you can turn it into gold one day.

7 comments:

Kim Woodruff said...

That is an awesome metaphor. I'm still new enough at this that I've given up on a draft of a book because it felt so flat. Next time that happens, I'll have a little more faith.

Lisa B. said...

It's so true, too. If you write, you'll find your way to the good stuff. But if you don't, the book can stay perfect ... in your mind. Where no one else can read it.

Carry on, gf.

Joseph S. Ramirez said...

Wow. I could have written that first paragraph! I feel the same way these days.

Thanks for the encouraging thought, Ann. :)

James said...

I am not a writer, but I read a book once about writing, so I am pretty much an expert on the issue. It seems to me that the cure for dull, flat, unspecial writing is to write with a cockney accent to see "'ow it goes".

Just keep writing. I firmly believe you will spin gold.

Emily said...

Ha, the title threw me for a loop. I had this thought that you were writing a YA mystery WITH Rumpelstiltskin, which might make for a charming book.

Happy to see I'm wrong and spinning gold instead.

link2literacy said...

Boy Howdy, if that ain't the truth. Filling up the room with straw is critical. I've only filled up a trough. And that straw is all over the place. But at some point,it will be organized into nice little bales - of gold, I hope. Not that fool's gold stuff that much of my stuff turns into.

Dylan C. said...

Rumpelstiltskin scares the crud out of me on Once Upon a Time. But, he is funny in Shrek 4.