One size does not fit all

A disastrous jaunt through the world on online shopping has me thinking about writing. Well, we are talking about me, here – just about everything has me thinking about writing in one way, shape, or form.

I love a book so much that when it became a movie, I wanted a memento. So, I travel online to find said…thing. Hours later, I find the perfect pajama set. Perfect. I can obsess in private, and I anxiously wait for my package to arrive with the perfect fitted t-shirt and flannel plaid pants. I think I actually squealed when it arrived, then promptly wanted to go on a hunger strike.

Why? The perfectly fitted women’s shirt was fitted so well that I wouldn’t even wear it to sleep. Yet, apparently I am the kind of person who must be hit more than once to learn a lesson because I order something else from the same online shopping boutique thinking, maybe it was manufacturing issue, and again am excited when this time a fitted hoodie arrives. And I am now completely dedicated to a new workout program because I refuse to buy the next size larger.

*munches on a handful of potato chips*

So what does all this have to do with writing? Everything.

Once size does not fit all – an apparently, the same size doesn’t fit anyone. We have all found those perfect ideas that glow brightly in the middle of the night – or after a few glasses of wine – or in the checkout line at the store.

Yet are they really the right fit? If they are like my t-shirt – not so much.

I tried to be a plotser though I am totally a pantser.

I tried to create an outline though I am still working the first round of edits.

I tried to create a visual plot board to help me find the holes though I can’t draw.

Once I stopped trying what worked for everyone else and focused on what was working for me, my writing flowed easier. It’s like that shirt – a beautiful idea that wasn’t the right fit, no matter how much I try to stretch or bend the material. Wearing it will be confining, restricting, and uncomfortable – much like my writing if I try to force it to behave.

Instead, I must hang on and enjoy the ride, stop trying to fit into a mold I’ve already broken, and enjoy another chip.

The power of words

An unusual sentence caught my attention this weekend and urged me to write this post.

Here's the sentence: I'll be with you as soon as I put the muffins in the microwave so the cat won't eat them.

Have you ever had to say or write that before? I know I hadn't because I actually paused after saying it, cocked my head to the side, and wondered if anyone has ever said it before.

So...according to several Internet sites, some of which looked less than reputable, there are over one million words? That seems a bit low. I do like the answer that there really isn't an answer to that question - but this entire little rant is not the purpose of this post.

With all the words, there are only so many ways in which we can arrange them together in ways that haven't already been done yet.

AND

makes those arrangements of letters and words interesting, intriguing and original.

Because that is what we, as writers, are trying to do - right? We are trying to arrange words in an order that hasn't been done about a subject that very likely has already been covered.

If that wasn't the case, there would only  be one book about vampires. One about zombies. One about Dragons. One about love. One about war...you get the idea.

It is easy to arrange words in an order that is original.

The bright pink elephant didn't want to sit next to the silly little butterfly.

What is not easy is making those arranged words make sense and want to be read. What is not easy is making them tell a story that someone would want to read.

And there's the bottom line. The words need meaning. They need power. Who cares about the pink elephant or for that matter my muffin starved cat?

As a writer, the first answer must be me.
The second answer must be the story.
And hopefully the third and equally important answer will be the reader.

As I writer, I must use the power of words to make the reader care about the words I have chosen, but hopefully have written in such a way that the words use each other and don't compete for attention.

We've seen those great lines. The killer first sentences. The heard breaking last lines. And we have all heard how important that opening thought of a story is.

So now I leave you with words. And go to create some power of my own.