PERFECTIONISM AND BEGINNINGS
It’s a distressing way to write. And over the year of
2018, I worked at softening it – telling myself that I can come back later and
edit, forcing myself past the writer’s block instead of simply waiting for it
to evaporate, reminding myself that it’s never perfect the first time anyway.
But in one aspect, I haven’t yet succeeded.
Beginnings.
“Jump into the middle of your story,” they tell you.
“Just write. Worry about the perfect beginning later.” Great advice. Advice
which I threw out the window as a novice writer, and never looked back. My
stories have to have the right opening. Until they do, I can’t write a single
word!
Why? I ask myself.
The answer is that, for me, it boils down to this: How
do you write what happens when you don’t know how it started?
Any writer will tell you that each part of a story is
woven into the other. It’s sometimes not easy to make a change in one spot,
even a small change, because you realize that that small change will shift the
whole framework. For me, in my inflexible, perfectionistic soul, I have to at
least start off on the right foot. I have to know that when I put my pen to the
first line of the first page, I’ve laid a sure foundation for the towering
arches and spires of the tale to follow.
So I agonize over it, and wait for it to come. Should I
start by laying the scene, or jumping into action? A lyrical line, a pithy
observation, or a snappy, memorable catchphrase? Happiness or sadness?
Sometimes it’s a while of waiting. But it has always
come. Sometimes I have to go back and change it, whether the story has outgrown
it, or it’s simply not the opener I thought it was. But it has still always
come. And sooner or later, the story is sitting there in its finished beauty,
every loose end tied and every theme fulfilled, with that perfectly defined
beginning blanketing it like a wedding veil.
I don’t recommend the perfectionist route. It comes with
heartbreak, sleeplessness, and tears, and you can be a wonderful writer without
it. But for those of us who are perfectionists, take heart. Soldier on. Temper
your tendencies, but remember that sometimes there is a
perfect line out there. And you’re going to be the one to find it.
BIO:
Verity Buchanan is the daughter of an Orthodox Presbyterian pastor and the oldest of eight children. Born in South Carolina, she moved to rural northern Michigan at age eight and has lived there since. She has been a voracious reader since she was four years old; from there, it was a bare step to writing her own stories down. She has completed an entirety of four novels and two novellas set in Legea, of which The Journey, a young adult fantasy releasing with Ambassador International in 2019, is her first published work. Aside from her passion for writing, Verity enjoys piano playing, pencil sketching, and helping out at the local dairy farm.
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1 comment:
the book is great and i would be reading if i had it
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