Writing Blindly – When You Don’t Know Where A Story Is Going

We’ve all been there.

That point in the story where you are NOT sure where you are going.

That’s when doubt creeps in.

That’s when you begin to second-guess yourself.

“I’m no good,” you say.

“I don’t know what I am doing,” you say.

“I ought to rewrite. I ought to give up. I ought to take up needlepoint or knitting or counting itches at the flea circus.”

Remember the first line (roughly translated) in Dante’s Inferno?

“In the middle of my life I found myself in a dark wood for the right way was lost.”

Keep on writing. Remember, your words are nothing more than steps in the wilderness. You might feel lost – but keep on going – and step by step you’ll find out that you were right where you needed be the whole time.

Write blindly.

Let your pen be your compass needle.

Have faith that your story knows where you are going.

Remember the words of my Uncle Bob – “When you are waist-deep in alligator it is important to remember that you set out to drain the swamp.”

What does that mean?

You set to write the first draft of a story.

Don’t let that second-thought alligator talk you out of completing that first draft.

So never mind that gator.

Keep on draining the swamp – one Solo cup at a time.

Remember – it is AWFULLY hard to revise a blank page.

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon