My WIP And I Are Having Uncomfortable Conversations
What to do when your writing wheelhouse is nowhere in sight
My goal with this blog at its conception was to be relatable. I didn’t want to emotionally dump into a void on the off chance a writer would stumble into the corner and be turned off by the lack of actionable advice, or when faced with a character (myself) that they “couldn’t quite connect with.”
That said, poetry sucks. And songwriting sucks. Writing anything that isn’t YA fiction sucks.
My apologies. I should make myself clearer. All of these things suck for me because my brain isn’t wired that way. Or maybe I’m just so out of practice that approaching these mediums feels like a greater feat than it actually is. At the end of the day, they’re all different means of storytelling, but that’s all they are.
Songs. Poems. Books. They’re all just stories. So why is it so difficult for my brain to wrap itself around them?
Great question, but I’m not going to answer it cause I still don’t know how. I’m writing all of this because, despite being uncomfortable with these art forms, my WIP demands that I include them all. And look, readers, I’ve tried negotiating with the manuscript, but it isn’t budging.
It doesn’t care that I find song lyrics in novels to be cringey. For everything I love about The Hunger Games series, I have to fight myself not to skip over the italicized paragraphs. In part, because they make my skin crawl. But also because sometimes, they make me feel like a dunce. Regardless, my creativity is being held hostage until I can get over my fear of lyrics.
So, I’m having to have these uncomfortable dialogues with my work in progress. It wants me to write a song. I have no songwriting experience. I get to the point in the story where the lyrics need to go, and my brain now takes a stand against me and refuses to generate good words until I write the song.
This is ridiculous! I’m not a songwriter. I’m a novelist. But now it’s two against one, and I have to dive headfirst into a rabbit hole about song structure, lyricism, and ruin my YouTube algorithm so that it only recommends me songwriting tutorials instead of 1,000-day Minecraft hardcore survival movies. I am in absolute despair. Please feel bad for me.
But songwriting is only the tip of the iceberg. Last week, I wrote about puzzles in novels and strictly referred to a makeshift guitar on which the aforementioned song would be played. Both of these puzzles appear in Chapter 6 of my WIP, and at the time of writing this blog, I have no intention of them returning later in the novel. Maybe they will, but not in a way that’s integral to the plot.
Now, you may think that’s an awful lot of puzzling for one chapter with zero ramifications to the plot, and you’d be right… But that’s not even half of the battle I’ve been waging with myself.
Tasker, Who Art In The Place, Hallowed Be Thy Name
When I started writing my WIP, I had this idea for there to be a religious fanatic who runs a pseudo-cult. Think the obligatory evil pastor in Stephen King novels, but not as jaded by spiritual abuse. It was supposed to be a small way to add depth to the world, and maybe use it as a vehicle to teach readers about the history of this cosmic anomaly without boring them with exposition.
Of course, my brain couldn’t allow that. There was too much potential in this side character. The book demands he take on a larger role. This religious doctrine and its prophecies needed to become a reality. This character isn’t a crazed zealot. He speaks truths that the main character wrestles with.
And I know what you’re thinking. What’s the problem? This is just character development.
No, no, no. The issue isn’t the characters themselves. The problem is that to make his theology believable, it needs backing. It demands religious texts. And thus, as the sun set on my career as a songwriter, it rose on my time as a scribe.
Let me preface this by saying I went to a religious private school from age 7 to 17, where we were taught from the King James Bible every morning. If you think literary fiction is hard to digest, try being a third grader attempting to decipher the meaning of “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” (1 Cor. 15:31)
Alas, if anything, my 11 years of KJV education prepared me to write scriptures for my novel. And in a way, it’s a lot more fun than I initially anticipated. I preemptively equated writing my own fictional bible to how it felt to write a song, but I was a lot more familiar with how the King’s English is written than how lyrics are supposed to flow together. Here, let me give you a taste:
6 And my heart did melt within me, and my tears were unto me as bitter waters. Yet the beasts did sing in tongues unknown, and their song was terrible and enraged.
7 And I knew in that hour that I was no more of the earth, but was numbered among the lost.
Still, it was a monumental task to write the seven verses in Chapter 6. I know a lot of people subscribe to the advice that the first draft is for the writer and that you can make it pretty later on, but when it comes to pieces like scripture or songs, I can’t help but try to get it perfect on the first go-around.
Most everything else can be reworked, but these pieces that make me uncomfortable to handle have to be perfect (in my mind) before I can move on.
You may have caught this already, but the first seven verses of my text also appear in Chapter 6. Because of the diversity in media, this chapter took over a week to work through.
But it’s over, right? WRONG!
This religious character is a thread that’s spun throughout the book. He knows this scripture by heart because he wrote it himself. There are at least three more places where I will need to handcraft King James jargon about play places and monsters so that readers can continue to suspend their disbelief that this 15-year-old truly believes the nonsense he’s spewing.
Why am I putting myself through this? Well, for the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m crafting something worth reading. I’m pushing myself as an author and being rewarded with confidence.
Now, it’s time for my final act, where I somehow defy the odds and loop this back around to be about you, the reader.
Just like in life, having those uncomfortable conversations can be far more rewarding than avoiding them. In case of writing, it’s sitting down with your manuscript and “talking” through what both of you need.
Is it the addition of another subplot? Is it the murder of a few darlings? Or does your character need a hobby you know nothing about but will now have to pour hours of research into so your MC can have a little more depth?
Regardless, your craft might go a bit stale if you stay within the confines of your literary comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to push yourself and try new things. The backspace key is always there to press if you don’t like it.