The importance of daydreaming.

One of the things I like about writing is that, if you’re open to it, you can learn something new every day, something that makes you a better writer.

I’m not necessarily talking about grammar or punctuation because I’ll admit, I don’t think I’ll ever really learn some of the finer points of grammar… someone want to explain burst vs. bust to me?

I’m referring, or trying to if I’d get to the point, about the art and business of writing. When I first started, writing was like a drug, I just couldn’t get enough. And then I realized I had a lot to learn in order to make that writing readable. I embraced that learning process with everything I had.

One of the things I learned is that writing is a business. If this is my job and I plan to make a career of this job, I can’t take the day off because I don’t feel ‘inspired’. Can you imagine telling your boss that? “Sorry, I’m not feeling it today; think I’ll go watch Friends.” You wouldn’t have a job for long.

So I knuckled down, I wrote even when I knew the writing was so so. I made my daily word count. But, with my current WIP, I knew something was wrong. I told myself it didn’t matter, it was a rough draft and I’d pick up whatever it was during revisions. Everyday it became harder to sit down at that keyboard. Twitter became much more interesting. I won several hands of Solitaire. And then one day I stopped and thought maybe the story was a flop, perhaps the plot was no good. Perhaps I should delve into some of the other ideas peppering my mind.

I gave myself permission to stop, to take a few days off and that’s when I realized although I had plotted this story and understood the character motivation, the crisis, the resolution of crisis and the payoff, I hadn’t ever daydreamed about the story.

Maybe at this point you’ll think I’m a loon and that’s okay, but I bet there are a few of you out there that understand. This is a business but it’s an art too. We, as writers, learn to capture an emotion, put it on paper and then make someone we’ve never seen feel that emotion. To me, that’s magic. Yes, there are techniques and even formulas but under it all, it’s the dream, the fantasy, we’re selling and for me, if I want to sell that dream I first must dream it.