Chasing Words

Where do the words come from?

I always get annoyed when I read or hear writers try to explain where their fiction stories come from. They love to tell stories about "muses" or "voices" in their head. And I really hate the old "my characters take control".  The truth is I don't know that anybody really knows where their words come from. How could they?

I sit down and write when I feel like writing. Just like that. No fairies floating around my ears urging me to write. No lighting bolt comes out of the sky and tells me what to say.  I don't necessarily feel like writing anything in particular either. I get an itch to write and I do. For the most part I don't know what words I am going to put down until the moment I see them on the screen. Sure, there are times when a thought or a topic enters my head right before I sit down, but that is rare. There are no outlines or notes. It's really just a need to put down some words and I do it (or not do it some cases).

I have a story on my list here on Wattpad called "Don Pedrito and the Devil Wind". It's a true story about an old man that lived in my neighborhood and a small interaction he and I had. When I sat down to write it I just did. I was not thinking about Don Pedrito or that incident before I sat down nor had I thought about it at anytime in the years after it happened. I had an itch to write and I sat down and it came out in just a couple of minutes. I had not thought about it at all or, I dare say, remembered it until I saw it on paper as I wrote it. 

But that is non-fiction. It came from my memory so I know where it came from even if I did not plan it or look for it. 

What about fiction? How does that happen? Maybe, just maybe, fiction is even easier than non-fiction. It has no story limits, after all. It can be whatever I want it to be. The only real limit is my imagination.  I am in the process of writing a few fiction pieces and I do find them easier than non-fiction. They are just words and if you are not scared of words you should be okay. The only problem for most people is, of course, having options. Options freak many fiction writers out. They can't choose from all their thoughts and ideas. It can become a real mess for them.

There a few lucky few though. They just sit down and write and the words flow as if there was no other option but what comes out that first time. That may be a gift of some kind. A talent. Some writers have writing talent while others just work at it every day. 

Would you know the difference if you read it? I have read some really beautiful stories and sometimes I wonder how difficult it was for the writer to make it so good. Did it just flow out as gorgeous prose or did the author have to almost have a stroke making the words? Does it even matter?

I think it Hemingway is an amazing writer and I thought forever that he just sat down and wrote and it all spilled out easily. I then saw a book about him with photos of stacks of handwritten rewrites for just one paragraph in one of his books. Just one paragraph. He re-wrote the same paragraph dozens of times until it felt right to him. 

Stephen King once wrote that "amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us get up and go to work". King can't tell you where his words come from either. But he can't stop writing. 

To me being a writer can't just be what you are, it has to be what you do. The words are already in you. Sometimes I don't wait for them to make me stop and sit down and tell a story. Sometimes I sit down just for the hell of it and do it anyway. I have to do more of that. I can't wait for the feeling because maybe someday the feeling won't be there anymore. I want to learn to write without it. To hell with where the words come from. 

So keep writing. Kill the muses and shoo away the little fairies at your ear. They aren't real. They are just excuses for the day you can say that they are gone and can't write anymore. Your characters don't write themselves. It's all you. It has always been just all you. Be proud of that and keep writing.