When I was starting out, writing wasn’t a chore. It was fun and exciting and I couldn’t wait to get to the keyboard. But after 30+ books, mostly it feels like a job. Not the kind of job that would give me hives, but a job, nonetheless. Deadlines are really hard in a creative endeavor. Especially if, while in the midst of creating, things change in the story. I realize deadlines are necessary, especially if one doesn’t have that handy trust fund waiting in the wings, but man, it can get dicey.
On the other hand, the upside of writing regularly are the regular opportunities for magic. For me, it comes down to this – sometimes what’s happening on the page is so fabulous, so incredible, so magical, that my heart rate accelerates, my smile is so big it hurts, the clouds part, the angels sing…yeah, like that. It’s a coming together of plot, character, language, pacing, and tempo that transcends. It’s the writer’s harmonic convergence, and there’s no way to predict it or force it. The magic happens when it will. I might happen once in a book, or once in ten books, but it’s such a powerful rush that I’m willing to go through ten books on the chance there’ll be the scene that soars.
It’s pretty compulsive, and a little too much like an addiction cycle, but ah, well. That’s how it is for me. Not that every other writing day sucks. Some do, but mostly, I enjoy writing. Or, uh, having written. But I have to wonder if I would still be so committed to writing if there wasn’t that incredible carrot just out of reach.
The whole process fascinates me, and I love reading about how other writers feel when they’re doing it. (ha! that sounds dirty) Every writer deserves the magic moment, and I wonder sometimes where I am on the scale – do other writers have these moments regularly? Sometimes? Never? Do other writers even know what the hell I’m talking about?
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Hi Jo!
I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’ve written six books and only achieved writerly Nirvana with one so far. It was like an extended tantric mind orgasm. Just sublime.
Unfortunately, it’s rare. Fortunately, I know this and was able to enjoy it while it was happening. I sure do wish it would happen more often, though. And, like you, keep writing in the hopes that it will.
Great post! I love your term “harmonic convergence”! Much better than the tennis analogy of “hitting the sweet spot” that I’ve been using. I’m gonna steal it *gg*
I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’ve called it being “in the zone”.
It has happened at some point with each book, but never in the early drafts, which are awful. No amount of prewriting seems to fix that. Sigh… I just have to keep writing and praying it will come together.
Without that “incredible carrot” I would never get through.
For me it happens when I’m writing dialogue. The real world slips away and I’m somewhere else, listening in and recording the conversations of people only I hear, of people only I see inside my head.
LOL I probably shouldn’t admit that. The men in the white coats will be coming soon!
My words for it? Those times are the times “when a story practically writes itself.” But “harmonic convergence” works for me, too.
For me, it’s sort of a magical mist where everything else ceases to exist except the story. Those are the times when the characters and I breathe, act and react together as one and the story flows. Hours go by without my being aware of the passing of time. Oh how I wish that happened every time I sit down to write!
Oh yes, I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes I don’t realize it until after I’ve finished typing, but then there’s sort of a silence (yes, in my head. Cue the wagon!) and I got back and read what I just put down and think ‘… whoa. That was good!’
Makes the whole struggle worth while.
Do you mean when you’re typing and suddenly you stop, look at the clock and realize that a couple of hours have gone by. Not only that, but your hands begin to hurt, something you didn’t notice until you stopped because you were in that other world, listening to those other voices, living those other lives. Magic? Yeah, that’s a good word for it. Let the white coats come on down, I could probably get a lot of writing done in the psycho ward.
Had something like that happen yesterday during the final revision on the book. Woman walks into the office to talk to the accountant, as usual, the accountant turns around, and he’s wearing round, black-rimmed specs.
Whoa, I think, where’d that come from? But I like the look and keep it.
Then, she goes upstairs to talk to the cartoonist, and he’s posing in the mirror and drawing, as usual, only he’s wearing shorts and sporting a new perm, and it so suits his character that he’s firmly locked in my head.
I *know* this guy in a way that I hadn’t through the previous drafts.
That’s the magic working, and as sprog as my witness, I can’t tell you how it happened, when it will happen again, or why. I can only tell you that this never happens at my day job.
I suppose that’s what keeps us slaving away.
Okay, then. I’m gathering the consensus is that this is something very real for most (all?) fiction writers. How fascinating and wonderful. But why then do I rarely hear about it? There isn’t even a word for the experience. Magic, harmonic convergence, in-the-zone. All allude to the same experience but they aren’t the singular word. I know this happens in other creative endeavors, too, but again, no specific word. hmmm.
I don’t think you’ve been talking to the right people, then, Jo!
As I bang my head against the keyboard in despair, remembering hte happy times that were the ease of my last book, my boyfriend calmly pats me on the head and says, “You didn’t think they’d ALL be that easy, did you?”
He’s lucky my laptop is a blunt object.
I have had that wonderful feeling with three of the books that I’ve written. It’s almost as if the book is writing itself. Doesn’t happen often…or as often as I’d like, but when it does it’s magic.
Ah, that one magical moment. Too bad it doesn’t show up anywhere near enough as it should. *sigh*
I had it happen to me with a story I’d been working on for weeks. Nothing seemed to be working until one night in the wee hours. It just hit me and I ended up writing for six hours.
Needless to say, my hands were pretty much useless the next day. LOL!!!!
>Okay, then. I’m gathering the consensus is that this is something very real for most (all?) fiction writers. How fascinating and wonderful. But why then do I rarely hear about it?>
Because that is the nature of magic.
Beth
[...] I read an article over at Romancing the Blog by Jo Leigh a bit ago that stuck in my mind: When It’s Good…. The part that stood out the most was this: For me, it comes down to this – sometimes what’s happening on the page is so fabulous, so incredible, so magical, that my heart rate accelerates, my smile is so big it hurts, the clouds part, the angels sing…yeah, like that. It’s a coming together of plot, character, language, pacing, and tempo that transcends. It’s the writer’s harmonic convergence, and there’s no way to predict it or force it. The magic happens when it will. I might happen once in a book, or once in ten books, but it’s such a powerful rush that I’m willing to go through ten books on the chance there’ll be the scene that soars. [...]