James' 2nd Blog - Mastering the Art of Storytelling: The Power of Movement and Letting Go

Sometimes when you're writing, the first important thing you need to do is pick the right music that helps create the proper mood for you. Which I just did before starting this blog.

I'm listening to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and the melodies are creating the other-worldly atmosphere I need for talking about writing.

I believe that all writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, is about telling stories. Little sections of description, dialogue, or explanations. There are more items I can mention here, but that's enough for now.

All story-telling requires movement. You have to keep moving forward, which also applies to life. To be healthy, you have to move about, which means walking, climbing stairs, trees, hills, running, swimming, playing ball, whatever you need to do to keep alive. And that movement isn't measured in how mile you go, or pages you, but how much time you spend at it.

The same is true about writing. You have to keep moving forward. Movement can be described, but it can also be dialogue. And another kind of movement is thinking about what you're going to write about next.

The more you write and the more you think about it, the better your stories will be.

Sometimes, though, when you write, you can get distracted, In other words, you go off road. That's happened to me more than a few times. Then you have to locate where the tangent began that you're following. And when you find that beginning, that trail away from where you want to be, the best thing you can do is to delete it. Now, it might be something you really like, and though you know it doesn't belong where it is right now, the best thing you can do is to get rid of it. And why would you want to to do that? Because it's your ego talking. Your pride. Your self-righteousness. And all of those things screw up your writing.

There are lots and lots of writers who have gotten so wrapped up in their own words that they didn't know what they are saying or didn't know how badly they were screwing things up.

That's happened to me a few times. And it's always painful to get rid of what you think is so wonderful. But you have to do it. For the sake of your story.

Writing is fun and wonderful and glorious. But the wonder and glory belongs to your characters, not to you.

See you out there.