Thursday, December 28, 2006

Total Immersion

I've spent some long stretches working on a chapter to back up that first line I posted a few days ago another nice part of being off from my day job a few days and generaly off my feet.

It's a first line I've modified a bit based on suggestions here, by the way.

Referring to Dean Koontz on writing again, in one of his writing texts he's adamant about devoting uninterrupted hours to writing. Find time on a weekend if not during the week, he urges, to spend uninterrupted stretches with your fiction.

Other than having cats jump on my laptop I've done that the last few days, and it kind of reminded me how effective immersion in the world of your fiction can be.

The four walls of the setting become real, the characters literally start to breathe and truly you're in a different place within yourself or your thoughts.

As a reporter I covered someone discussing painting from the left side of the brain or the right, I forget which one's which in the creative vs. pragmatic scenario. She talked about getting to that place.

I know scientifically the left-right brain notion isn't proven, but I do find something does happen in the creative process where everything really kicks in.

I may have mentioned in this blog before how much I came to live in the small town that is the setting of my novel When Darkness Falls. I knew the streets, the shadows, the shops and what it was like to drive through town on a foggy evening.

When the book was finished I hated to leave.

It's to reach that point in a new piece of writing. It's not magic, but it feels that way.

3 comments:

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

Absolutely, Sid. It doesn't happen as much with my short fiction, as the stories are the equivalent of running up a hill. But when I was writing THE HOLY TERROR, I knew the city and smells and sights. The flames and smoke in the prologue I recall with much intensity. If I ever cobble my notes together for CITY WITH NO SECOND CHANCES, I can see the last scene from every angle in MY mind and from every character's POV.

Charles Gramlich said...

That immersion is the joy of writing, and it does seem magical. I know when I'm able to do it I feel energized and just plain good.

Clifford said...

Yeah, there's little better than the immersion. I'm convinced it's good for you.

Place is not one of my strong suits...it's one of the areas I need to work on, so I've never had that sense of being there -- not in the physical way you describe. Interesting...

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