You know what I really love about Twitter? Besides all of the cool people I have stumbled across, and the hysterically funny things that can be accomplished in 140 characters or less. I love that sometimes an answer to question I didn't even know I was asking will come to me, not in the form of a fortune cookie, but in the form of a tweet.
I have been working on a idea for a new plot that involves a female lead that gets a second chance through amnesia. I have been plotting it out for about two weeks now and the story is pretty strong in my head. The problem was I kept thinking, this has been done to death. I mean I can go and find at least three novels on the shelf right now that involve an amnesiac patient as one of the leads. Even though I felt strongly about this I kept telling myself it wasn't a good story line.
But on Saturday I had a complete reversal of opinion based just on a conversation I had with one of my twitter friends. @Crzywritergrl said, "I was reading a blog where they were saying that writing angels and demons was as cliche as vampires? what is your take?" She threw that out to her twitter universe to see what everyone was thinking and immediately I disagreed. How could someone make such a general statement?
That is like saying the traditional romance has been done to death. I responded that I disagreed and I believe that there are no bad stories, just bad story tellers.
I logged off before the conversation really got started because it was Saturday and it was beautiful and that meant we were hitting the marina. But later as I was lazing in the sun with my ear buds in listening to some tunes the characters from that story started talking to me again, and with that "tweet" still fresh in my mind I decided that I owed it to them to tell the story that was playing out so vividly in my imagination. So far, so good. We will see what happens.
After all that is the great thing about listening to those voices. Sometimes you just never know where you are gonna go. And as I have recently learned, that is the great thing about paying attention to those tweets. Sometimes you can be re-inspired.
A big shout out to @Crzywritergrl for reminding me that when voices start talking to me, I need to listen, and than I need to write.
3 comments:
Oh my dear... I am so glad you blogged this!!! The twitter community spoke and it was a revelation to me. Although Angels and Demons have been done, they can still be written if the voice, writer, and story are strong enough. Some people were sick of hearing about angles and demons... but I have fallen in love with them. I write them because they come alive in my head in ways I never thought possible. I encourage all writers to remain true to what they write and write it well.
And... I am glad I could help. We must have been having corresponding bad writing days. I was so down in the dumps about my work that day. Your tweet really helped me pick myself up again and keep writing what I love.
Tweet you soon!
I am so glad that my Tweet spoke to you because I know your spoke to me. I had been beating myself up that and after our mini conversation I was able to let go what I think should be told and listen to the characters in my head who want their stories to be told. I am a believer, I will never again doubt what they tell me.
You're so right about Twitter--what a great online support group, huh?
And never, never give up on your writing. Nobody has told the story the way YOU will tell it. :)
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