No Tears in the Writer

I love this quote from the late, great Robert Frost because it answered a question I’d already been asking myself – do other writers cry?

It seems a strange and faintly arrogant notion – to cry at your own work, but it’s not something I planned or expected. I mean, I made this story up, right? How can I be emotionally affected by it?

Writing is an art of discovery. You can plan as much as you want to but until you get down to writing a dramatic scene or a meaningful exchange between characters, you never really know what’s going to come out. It’s not as different to watching a film or reading somebody else’s work as you might think, it’s just taking place in your own head instead of on the screen/page.

Also, you’ve grown to know these characters better than anyone so you’re bound to be invested in them, and since writing can often be a way of dealing with your own experiences, it shouldn’t be such a surprise when the choices you make have a profound effect on you.

Speaking of surprise, that brings me on to the second part of the quote. I planned my second book, Dark Tidings, in far more detail than the first but you can’t answer every question until you reach specific points in the narrative. I changed major story elements as I went along because, when I got to specific scenes, I’d suddenly think, “Wait. You’re supposed to think this happened, but what if THIS actually happened?” Or, “Instead of doing this, what if he does THIS?”

So, as a writer who wants to affect people with my story, I can only hope Robert Frost was right.

Ultimately, readers will serve as the judge, jury and sometimes executioner.