I have discovered that the more I talk about the writing projects in which I am currently immersed, the more people will lend their own advice. Now while this may not always (or ever) be the best idea in the world, it can sometimes bring about some gems. For example, I’m writing a short story right now that borrowed a basic plotline from a story by Chekhov. I’ve explained my project to several people, and it was almost as if they could not help themselves – ideas came shooting out of them so fast with so much intensity that I had hour-long conversations about it with both of them.
My friend Ryan knew a relative that had been involved in a farming accident, which is something that I’m including in my story but don’t know a lot about. He actually called his mother to ask her more details about it, and took a page of notes for me on all the gory details. Then my friend Dan ran with the plot, and went a whole different direction from what I had planned to write. I could see in his eyes that he was intrigued with the idea, and he actually sent me a long poem he wrote, inspired by the plot idea.
I’ve decided that especially based on these two friends, I should turn to my community, writers or not, for ideas and inspiration, and think that any writer who chooses not to take advantage of their network is doing themselves a great disservice.
1 comment:
Open-source writing.
I'd never have thought of it.
I'm a fan of community support across many facets... especially in software, but that's my own interest.
Putting your writing "out there" in a blog (or website, or whatever) is a good way to foster interesting conversation.
Community can only make things better. Look at open-source projects that have gotten big (pidgin, firefox, Ubuntu, etc).
Brilliant! Keep up the good writing. Makes me feel closer, even though we're a couple thousand miles apart. :)
Amy
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