30 Minus 2 Days of Writing (2014)
Day 9: “Dylan”
You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, “Who is that man?”
You try so hard
But you don’t understand
Just what you’ll say
When you get homeBecause something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?– Bob Dylan, “Ballad of a Thin Man”
It feels like Bob Dylan is singing directly to me whenever I listen to “Ballad of a Thin Man”. Granted, I’m not as thin as I used to be, and my last name isn’t Jones, but I have often felt like an outsider looking in on the world, documenting what I see but never fully understanding the things I observe around me. I guess that’s why I find it so hard to write fiction even though I’ve always dreamed of completing a novel. In nearly all cases, the only time I can ever write with conviction is when my point of view is fixed squarely between my own two eyes. I’m a writer, not a storyteller. That’s what I seem to keep telling myself, anyway.
It’s a maddening feeling knowing that you have something to say, but forever doubting your ability to say it in just the right way.
30 Minus 2 Days of Writing (2014)
A painful exercise in forced inspiration brought to you by
“We Work for Cheese“
I think you are a little too critical. You are too caught up in perfection when writing your story. You should just try to have fun with it. Or if you have a particular scene in your head, write it out and then try to fit all the scenes together later. You don’t necessarily have to start at the beginning.