Friday, January 18, 2008

An Aha moment

I had my writer's group last night, and I ended up getting the most out of it on the drive home. I dropped one of the members at her house, and during the ride, I mentioned how I was having a hard time with the story I am revising. I decided it was because many of my stories are about the same thing--loss of a loved one-- and I was finding it hard to really to distinguish this character from my others.

My writing group partner mentioned how in lots of author interviews, writers talk about how they often get obsessed with one topic and write about it from a million different angles to try to get a grasp on it. And she noted that loss of a loved one is a big enough topic that she could see how I could do that.

Something about her saying that made me think about the many people a person grieves
throughout a lifetime. And that made me realize why I was feeling stuck--two of my characters are 30-something women grieving after the unexpected death of a husband. Why do they both need to be grieving husbands? There are so many other types of people whose death would really impact a person. So now I am thinking that the character in Sit, Stay is grieving after the death of her father, to whom she was really close.

I feel unstuck! And excited to get back to my revision this weekend. Best Blogger Tips

6 comments:

Becca said...

I'm always fascinated by the winding roads we take to reach out "breakthrough" ideas.

I'm glad you're unstuck :)

DJPare said...

Cool.
The people in your writers group must be awesome!

Writer Bug said...

Becca, Me too! Thanks for your comment. :)

Don, Well, at least the one I drove home. ;) Did you eat cupcakes and cheezedoodles for breakfast this morning?

Repeater said...

Back from the blog-dead, I am, and happy to see you're on top of things once again (don't look to my blog yet, I'm still sleeping there). I've been waiting for a break-through myself. It's sure to come any time.

TI said...

Congrats on your breakthrough. That is fantastic. Just to run with the idea your friend pointed you towards, I personally think that loss and grief aren't even always about dead loved ones. I went through a grief process about things from my past that I had to let go of in order to move forward in my life, and they weren't always people -- sometimes they were hopes, dreams, assumptions, roads not taken, etc. There are all sorts of losses to grieve. YOu could spin your theme forever!

I am hoping for a breakthrough, too.

Idiot Cook said...

Congrats on the breakthrough...that's awesome! And I like the angle you're taking with Sit, Stay (and I love the title, BTW...I'd like to read it when you're ready to share).

Keep writing! :)