Writer's Block and Spoiler Talk

 

Everyone who wants to write has it. Or something like it. My book has been dragging for ages, and it's drowning in my inadvertent urge to polish every last line. I suppose that comes from part of the very approach and methodology the book outlines, but that's not the whole of it. Another vital part of the manuscript's focus is on knowing when to stop planning, stop refining, and just let the chips fall where they may.

Finding that balance is where so many writers struggle. The manuscripts are there, they just haven't yet revealed themselves. They exist in the minds of their writers, simultaneously both complete and incomplete. Perhaps 'untranslated' might be a better way to describe it. The concepts, the phraseology, the characters, the facts and figures - they're all there... somewhere.

What stops so many is the fear of doing them justice- but one must also consider the Pottery Class Parable and recognize that hypothetical success does not come without the understanding born of experimentation, effort, failure, and improvement.

To some extent, this blog is my vehicle for development. It's somewhere I can write things down that I want to write, and that deserve to be read. Sometimes the problem is not having enough to build a coherent narrative. Other times, it's that the information holds secrets that aren't mine to share. Most often though, it's that I turn out something and think 'that should go in the book', and then it's tucked away.

I'm not worried about theft, though it happens all the time. Perhaps some part of me is thinking about showing things in their proper order- of what you might call spoilers. Many people have Opinions on the importance of avoiding such things, and fight against them as best they're able. The notion bothers me much less than it might, something that comes from a mix of my approach and my experience.

To me, the most important thing about spoilers is that they only matter when the story isn't strong enough to bear the weight of a lost surprise. Knowing the plot of a film or a novel in advance doesn't make the novel itself better or worse. You probably know what's said, and by whom, at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. The movie is still extraordinary- the knowledge changes naught. Foreknowledge never dampens the thrill for me because the thrill of the unknown is only one variety among a great many. Indeed, knowing the end might well spur the desire to discover the path traveled to get there.

A road to a far-off place doesn't change in length when you find out that's where you're going.
The flavor of your favorite dish doesn't lessen every time you eat it. (You might think so- but trust the chef.)
Your life isn't worthless just because you know how it ends. (It still might be, but that's another topic entirely.)

So don't worry about spoilers when it comes to writing any more than you might at any other time. There's no better way to overcome that worry than to see words appear on the page in front of you, either. If you know an ending, start writing how to get there. If you have a beginning, write what happens next. If you know something happened, write how or why. Be vague if you have to, and precise where you can. Details are laid upon shape and form, but those shapes and forms must be before they might.

I am not a 'Content Creator'

 

The depersonalization of expertise and expressionism is an extremely unwelcome bit of corporate linguistic shift.

I am an educator. A writer. A master culinarian. A personal trainer. I am a great many things, but when I choose to share them, it is for purpose. The notion of 'content creation' is designed to showcase the superfluous, the distraction, to work as camouflage for the exploitation beneath.

No matter how reliably I continue to do the correct and proper thing, I lose ground. The things I produce, the information I unearth, collate, refine, and share- none of it will become less valuable or less important as time passes. But it feels quite often as though I am filling a bookshelf that's somehow hidden, the contents unread.

To an extent, this is very much what might be considered a #firstworldproblem. To be grousing that no one pays attention could likewise easily be considered sour grapes. But it isn't. It's a valid and robust concern about the state of the general public, its approach to media, and the media industry's relentless efforts to homogenize, commoditize, and dehumanize.

Look for ways to improve rather than escape. You owe the world that much at least.

Much more, really. But that's a good start.