The Author’s Catch-22
Aidan at A Dribble of Ink essentially retweeted a post from George RR Martin’s “Not a Blog”, wherein Mr. Martin discusses the current state of the long-awaited A Dance With Dragons, and gives some small insight into his creative process.
Every time GRRM makes a post like this, there is a ripple through the blogosphere as his legions of fans chime in with their opinions about how long the book is taking, some spewing angry bile and vile insult, some strongly supportive, and others actively defensive. I’ve waded into this argument before, and frankly, I’m tired of it and have moved on to other things.
More interesting to me in this post is Mr. Martin’s dancing around what I consider the catch-22 of the obsessive author, and one I struggle with constantly: Wanting very much to talk about something that’s weighing on you, but being unable to for fear of biasing the results. Most people have co-workers at their jobs who they can discuss their work with, but in the same way jurors in trials covered by the news media must be often sequestered so their decisions are not influenced by hearsay or the opinions of others, so too must an author sequester themself to some extent.
Writing giant fantasy epics spanning years or decades with multiple POV characters weaving in and out of each other’s lives can really make your head hurt, especially when trying to line up the chronology of events so that even the most obsessive fan can’t find discrepancy, or trying to figure out how to allow one of your POV characters to witness something important that the reader need to see, but that the character has no logical reason to witness.
Right now I’m finalizing the stepsheet for The Daylight War. It is a detailed file (currently 165 pages), that spells out pretty much everything of note that happens in every chapter of the book. I do this for every book before I start writing prose. I realize it’s a far more obsessive process than most authors use, but it works for me, so I’m not going to argue with results. I’ve been working on the stepsheet for six agonizing months, sometimes exultantly, and other times feeling forlorn and hopeless as the puzzle pieces all over my desk refuse to fit together. Sometimes I think I am kicking the book’s ass, and other times it is clearly kicking mine. The book takes up a MASSIVE amount of my brain’s processing power, and an enormous amount of my time, and yet I essentially have no one to talk to about it.
In some ways, it’s worse with The Desert Spear. That books has been DONE for months. At this point, I couldn’t change it if I wanted, but I still can’t discuss it openly, for fear of giving out spoilers on the internet.
I have plenty of offers from people to take an early look and offer their thoughts. I appreciate this support a lot, and sometimes I am really tempted to take people up on it, if just to help stave off the madness and anxiety, the feeling that I will somehow FAIL. But while every author is different, in my case, the creative journey is a very personal one. My books are MINE. I don’t want anyone, not agent, editor, friends, family, or fans, tossing ingredients into or even stirring my simmering pot until I’m ready for people to taste it. Even then, I much prefer my test readers (including those with a professional interest in my work, like my editor) to tell me what didn’t work for them, and then leave me to figure out how to fix the problems on my own. Nothing aggravates me more than having someone looking over my shoulder and offering advice while I work on something. So as much as I want to talk about it, I don’t want to talk about it.
But it’s lonely. And that makes me sad sometimes.
Ah, the vicious cycle. It looks like it will always be this way, and each author has to go through their own process, and share what they will, when they will. As an editor and lover of books I enjoy reading posts like this one, and GRRM’s from yesterday as it sheds light on the complicated process that it all is. I look forward to hearing more about it, or less, depending on how you feel.
I think you probably have right idea and should go with your intuitive preferences. (As an aside, I finished that ARC of the Desert Spear. It was like The-Most-Perfect-Story-Ever. I loved the pacing and where you took the characters. So, I’d say stick with your system and trust your own story ideas!)
Bummer about having no one to vent to, though. Exploring your frustrations by talking with a real person can be a great way to reduce stress and regain your center.
If you do want to discuss your angst with the least emotional risk, then be wary of internet forums. Some small fraction of internet users are afflicted with the need to hide behind anonymity and say hurtful things, just for the hell of it. Poor GRRM. 🙁
I was just toying with the idea of convincing my wife to start writing so we could have endless discussions on the craft. Her thing is painting, so there is some overlap, but it’s tough going it alone, especially when you are struggling or have a breakthrough.
I have a little fantasy of creating a small on-line writing support group (rather than just a critique group or maybe instead of a critique group). It must be possible, I just don’t know how you come up with a complimentary mix of writers.
Thanks for posting.
I suspect that what will work for you, given the preferences you describe, is to get what you consider a good first draft and then enlist the help of trusted beta readers to point out places the story didn’t work for them. When you hear congruence of opinion among them, particularly, you know you have something you need to pay attention to.
And in the meantime, while you’re getting to that draft, I’m sure you have people you can bounce ideas off without biasing their experience of the story. I’ve honestly found that for many authors, talking through a story issue serves to clarify points for them, even if the other person isn’t offering advice–somewhat like the therapy approach where the therapist rephrases a patient’s concerns so that they hear it from another voice.
The trick, of course, is finding that particular type of listener, and one from whom you don’t mind the advice if they do decide to offer any. You’re always welcome to try bouncing the plot problems off me, if you’d like. I am a pro. 🙂
Alex, I’m amazed you even got the book already, much less finished it. Thrilled to hear you liked it so much.
And there are other ways to vent anxiety apart from talking through your issues. Physical exercise works for me.
I second physical exercise. Best way to release your stress! Plus, you can get high on endorphins 🙂
Peat, I read in another post that you keep an Excel File to log your progress. How exactly did you set that sheet up? Dates as the headers and word count below? I’m interested in starting one myself and wonder what the most effective way is. I’m not very experienced with Excel.
Hmmm…I *might* have stayed up 5 hours past my normal bedtime to finish it.
8)
Learco, it’s a pretty simple file. You should be able to set it up quite swiftly.
Basically, each week of writing has its own line on the spreadsheet, with columns for each day of the week, where I enter my daily word count. These total in column 8, giving me my word count for the week. Column 9 is the total of all weeks in the sheet, column 10 divides that by the number of weeks to see my weekly average, and column 11 divides that by 7 for my daily average.
I usually shoot for 1,000 words a day, 7 days a week. Sometimes I make it with thousands to spare, sometimes I don’t.
Plotting, blogging, twittering, business e-mails, and other non-prose writing don’t count!
Jonathan–
That’s funny. I’ve been trying to convince my wife to try writing, but she enjoys reading more.