Whenever I think of "the zone" I think of this Deep Space Nine episode where Miles and Julian are playing darts and Miles proclaims he can't loose this because he's in the zone. Of course, Miles is only winning because the genetically enhanced Julian is holding back.
I need some of that genetic enhancement!
I haven't really been in the zone lately - actually, for about the last week and a half. Work is part of it, it's been insane but we all know work is evil and we shall not speak of it further.
The more interesting reason for not being in the zone is my writing class. Yes, class has been over for a few weeks now, but I only recently started looking seriously at some of the comments they made on the two chapters I submitted. It wasn't that what they said was bad or negative, rather, they had a lot of interesting and astute observations that really made me question the approach I was taking in one of those chapters.
As it turns out, that questioning really took me off my game. My book is big and complicated and it is taken lots of really careful orchestration to get it to the point it is at today. My character arcs, in particular, have been meticulously planned and implemented and the comments my classmates made were pointed directly at character development.
What I find interesting is how quickly I took those comments to heart and began attempts to integrate them into my story. It took me several days to realize these attempts were fundamentally altering my carefully planned character development. Worse, they were taking me out of the zone!
Thankfully, sanity and reason won out and I have shelved any plans to make serious changes. I made a few tweaks here and there but ultimately I decided that I needed to stay true to my original plan. It isn't that I decided they were wrong, I just came to the realization that my peers, regardless of how accomplished they may be, can't make such unilateral judgments based on such a small snapshot of my story. I'll wait and see if I get a different response once my writing group has read enough to understand what I'm trying to do.
Meanwhile, I'm working on getting back to the zone!
Wish me luck!
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Embrace The Doppelgänger Blog by Shawn P. Enderlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
1 comment:
Good luck--and I totally agree with that approach. I'm experiencing the same feeling in my writing group.
At first, I was ready to dive in and make changes based on critiques, because I've never had formal training in writing (except what I studied on my own), and my group members are totally savvy on writing techniques and terms. Their suggestions are all good ones.
But...y'know...when I listened to their comments and my own instinct, I realized--I'm the only one who really knows this story, these characters. The group has helped me improve as a writer, and I totally appreciate it. But sometimes I just need to stick with my plan. :-)
So definitely stick with your plan! You'll know when changes need to be made. :-)
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