Sunday, April 25, 2010

Stevie King is Bomb Dot Com!

Okay so I was totally stressing out about my new project. I have this really interesting idea and a pretty cool format but I was freaking out because I wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen to my characters. Basically I have an awesome setting, a situation and my characters. BUT... what happens to them? What is my plot?

So I'm freaking out about this and all the while I have been reading On Writing by Stephen King. I've been reading it in small parcels, piece by piece --relishing the insight, the information... not wanting it to end.

And then Mr. King gives me this:

"You may wonder where plot is in all this. The answer--my answer, anyway--is nowhere. I won't try to convince you that I've never plotted any more than I'd try to convince you that I've never told a lie, but I do both as infrequently as possible. I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren't compatible. It's best that I be as clear about this as I can-- I want you to understand that my basic belief about the making of stories is that they make themselves. The job of the writer is to give them a place to grow (and to transcribe them, of course)."

"I lean more heavily on intuition, and have been able to do that because my books tend to be based on situation rather than story... I want to put a group of characters (perhaps a pair: perhaps even just one) in some sort of predicament and then watch them try to work themselves free. My job isn't to help them work their way free, or manipulate them to safety--those are jobs which require the noisy jackhammer of plot--but to watch what happens and then write it down."

Thank you Stephen King.

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