On my to do list today, after blogging, of course, is to pack. I am going on a trip to visit my wonderful friend in California, so naturally I have to prepare. Although I have a few days before I will actually be in the airport, waiting with the rest of the anxious travelers for the boarding announcement, seeing as it is the weekend and week days are usually packed with a variety of things, I figured I would get a head start. So with some laundry done and a mental list in my mind, I will begin gathering clothes and other items and stacking them in a neat little pile in my suitcase.
We all have an idea of what our trips will look like when we travel. What we pack reflects what we anticipate our trip to be. The general climate, any potential weather storms, the need for toilettries, outfits for varying occasions, and the itinerary for the week. But trips never exactly going as planned. Something unexpected happens for good or for bad. Someone becomes ill. The scenery isn't quite what we expected. A series of fortuitous events make your trip even better than you had imagined. Regardless of specific occurences, travelling is and always will be unexpected. No matter how much you may try to anticipate the trip, things will happen as they will, and while packing might help you to navigate the twists and turns, packing can't change the inherent uncertainties of travelling.
Such is writing.
Much like traveling, writing is a similar foray into a unknown world. And while we can outline and research, character sketch and plan, the experience is never as we anticipated. Although we might be prepared, we are certainly in the unknown.
This is both a fun, exciting part of writing as well as a bit of a downer. I know I certainly wish that writing could be easier sometimes — that all my preparatory work of brainstorming and outlining and mapping made the words flow beautifully onto the page as the scenes flew by with ease. But while some days prove tremendously fruitful and enjoyable, other days are equally as difficult. Yet, there is something rewarding about the days that are harder. You know, that moment when the scene finally comes out just as you'd planned or the hours of agonizing over the perfect details to solve your mystery and bring your character into their promised land culminate into one brilliant idea. In the unexpected, darker times of writing, where you have your luggage in your hand but just can't seem to figure out what corridor to go down, often that is when the best ideas come. When you are feeling most vulnerable and beat down, that's when you can truly delve into the adventure of the page. That's when some of the best scenes are writting.
You see, writing is like life — fully of uncertainty and never what you expect. We don't know what will come around the next bend. And although we can try to plan the heck out of everything, you know it will never quite turn out that way. There is always a surprise waiting just beyond your line of sight.
To be honest, this is not always something that is easy for me. I'm a planner, for better or for worse. But while I wholeheartedly believe in the importance of packing and preparing to the best of our abilities, I also know that sometimes when you're lost you might just stumble upon what you've been looking for — or even something better.
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