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Writing was easy. No, honest, it was! In the beginning, with eyes wide and fingers poised to create opus upon opus on pure fancy, writing was like a walk in the park. Not a simple park, mind you…I suppose it would be sort of a really large, confusing park, with a map drawn in crayon and held together with Sellotape. Sure, you wander about, taking no notice of the path you’re travelling, but the foliage is staggering, and it’s been kept up well.
Perhaps I’ve wandered a little too far into this thought, but I do like to look back on the simpler times, when one didn’t concern themselves with the rules, either of grammar or structure. Everything was a go, and nothing needed mending. The whole process of crafting a story was explosive and captivating, consuming you in a warmth that only comes from the creation of a story. Sure, it’s all good for a laugh a few years down the road, but the magic that you felt in the beginning is like nothing else.
Then the work comes, and it is a slog, isn’t it? Trying and failing to live up to standards: Standards that you, grammar, and your peers have placed on you. And don’t take me the wrong way, this is all good, it’s the process of learning, and growing as a writer, and a storyteller. It’s the kind of pain you feel with exercise and building muscle; it tears you up, but somehow, with all the pain, it manages to feel good. I have been going through some of my work, and I will admit that it’s terrifying in parts. If I don’t have half a mind to throw it all out, then someone else surely does, but that’s not exactly the best solution, in the long run.
Sometimes I long very much for simpler times. I remember writing my first two books quite well, actually. It was a flash in the pan, and a very exciting one at that, but looking back, I do realize that those stories have major problems. But then again, that bit of writing I did only yesterday has problems, and the edit I just finished on another novel has missed some of the glaring errors that I need to address!
But that’s it, isn’t it? As a writer, you’re always going to make mistakes. It’s really like walking up a down escalator, if you think about it. You keep on walking, but you don’t ever have a chance to catch your breath.
Writing was easy. In the beginning, it was, honest. But even in the darkest of days, and the bleakest bouts of writers-blocks and plot holes and complete and utter implosions of stories, it retains its magic. No matter how many rules of the English language I learn and seem to forget overnight, I can’t stop myself from slogging on. It’s captured a piece of me, and won’t let go. Any writer knows this. It doesn’t matter how hard it seems to get, because for every bit of suffering we seem to put ourselves through, that explosive, captivating, all-consuming joy puts it all behind us. So it doesn’t really matter what barriers I come up against, or how poorly I seem to have written on occasion, because I am a storyteller, and a writer, and in the end, that’s something worth working for.
Fight on, mates, and good writing!
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Shadow Mountain by Vance Smith
Genre: urban fantasy, YA
About Shadow Mountain:
More than one hundred years ago the Gateway was sealed by the last Gatekeepers... since that time, Magic has been fading in the world... * James Newt and Elizabeth Hartwell think they are ordinary run-of-the-mill orphans - until they are abandoned at a new orphanage, where statues talk, magic rules, and they have been chosen to learn and unleash the ancient, nearly forgotten, magic of the Gatekeepers! But with power, comes great danger, terrible evil from the past, and the Secret of the Gatekeepers...Source: Info in the About Shadow Mountain was from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Mountain-Secret-Gatekeepers-Smith/dp/1452009724/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1344154759&sr=1-1 on 05/08/2012.
Buy Link(s):
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About Vance Smith:
Born and raised in North W est British Columbia, Vance Smith discovered that reading was more then a little enjoyable and so got his mind set on the idea of forging his own stories; where thrilling things could happen. Vance enjoys other things as well, including music, art, and making a fool of himself in front of crowds and individuals. Having never used his brain as much as he has for writing, Vance looks forward to bringing many more stories to life for anyone who will read them.Vance's Link(s):
vsmithblogstodiefor.blogspot.ca