The hardest lesson to learn
And most tedious, deceptive, and time consuming.
One of my favorite books on writing is Ron Carlson Writes a Story by, you guessed it, Ron Carlson. It was recommended to me by the writer Ben Loory while taking one of his short story classes at UCLA Extension. The book follows beat by beat as Carlson writes a story and gives a great pep talk on what it means to live the writer’s life. Among its golden anecdotes is a story of Carlson out walking with his son when the boy said, “Isn’t it great when you don’t know where you’re going?”
I’ve hit a wall on my latest short story. I hit a wall with most writing projects. I had a few years in there where I didn’t get much finished because I convinced myself that many of my stories were fundamentally flawed and beyond rescue. It wasn’t until I heard Ron Carlson say, “The biggest difference between the amateur and professional writer is one’s tolerance for not knowing.” I might not know where a story is going for weeks, even months, as is now the case with this Black Hole short story. It’s maddening, but I’ve also come to learn that it’s part of my process. It’s usually when things are at their darkest that I just decide to break the story (that phrase means different things to different people, but to me I mean throwing a fucking Cobra at my characters to see what happens) and I get excited again for a little while until the next wall. Someone told me Jordan Peele says “Follow the fun” which is another good way of get yourself excited by any means necessary. Michael Arndt compares writing a screenplay to climbing a mountain blindfolded, adding that the hardest part of that experience is just finding the mountain.
Don’t be afraid to not know where you’re going. Put things down if you have to. Or give up on one trail and try another. There’s no wrong way to end up somewhere.
