So the other day I had a simple task to perform for my son, pick out a bike. He turned 5 this week and Grandma wanted to buy him a bike to greet him on the morning of his birthday. Well, Grandma lives 3,200 miles away, which meant I was at the store at 10:00 pm the night before trying to pick a bicycle that they would both LOVE from a meager selection at the local Large Mart. Bah.
Finally after 30 minutes of trying Debbie's patience by making her ride all of the 16" bicycles and wait for a surly, pimpled store employee, who didn't know the first thing about boy's bicycles to tell me nothing I didn't know about the poor specimens on display, I chose the least awful of the bicycles at a reasonable price and packed it home with a ribbon to match.
My son loved it. He sat right on it the next morning and declared it the supreme birthday present of all time.
Good choice right? Yeah, but I still don't love it. Good thing its not for me.
So how does this apply to writing...Indecision in life is a plague that seeps into writing as well. Writers who waffle end up with inconsistent characters and incomprehensible plots.
After the indecision at the store, Debbie tried, upon request, to help me brainstorm some plot ideas for my work in progress and guess what? Yep, can't decide about that either. The possibilities with my imagined world are endless. The romance could go from etherial to utterly corrupt or from epic to apocalyptic and I still don't know what it will become. All I know is its time to make some decisions and hope that like my son, who never knew the choices I faced to pick his perfect bike, anyone who reads the story will not know that I almost went with a completely different plot. Hopefully I pick the very best one after the eeny, meeny, miney mo.
What do you have trouble deciding about?
Lately, what to put as my status on Facebook. j/k
ReplyDeletereally, I can't seem to wrap my head around any kind of writing. Plus I have this really great fabric that I want to make a long skirt out of, and I can't decide how I want to draft the pattern. I want it to be perfect, but when I'm the one making the pattern, the pressure mounts. (it doesn't help that my husband tried to "help" organize my fabric stash and now I can't even FIND the stupid fabric.)
The difference here is that in your book, the ideas are of an excellent selection, while the bike choices was merely picking the most acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI think the best thing to do with indecision is just to start writing it out. The characters know where they need to go, even if you don't, and sometimes getting the words on paper will let you know the direction. Good luck!
I have the darnedest time deciding the right way to info dump.
ReplyDeleteWhat to have for dinner is a major plague in my life, but looking at my waistline, I've obviously found a way to work it out in spite of my indecision.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time deciding the most basic characteristics that drive some of my characters. You know, the kind of stuff that makes them tick. It's very frustrating because its that kind of stuff that either strengthens or weakens the plot.
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