{"id":1839,"date":"2017-05-16T14:53:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T21:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/?p=1839"},"modified":"2023-12-20T14:56:13","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T22:56:13","slug":"devourer-of-words-046-listening-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/devourer-of-words-046-listening-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Devourer of Words 046: Listening Post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n
\n

MARC BERNARDIN’S DEVOURER OF WORDS<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devourer of Words 046: Listening Post<\/h1>\n\n\n
Marc Bernardin<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Toucan<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"Marc<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This will sound familiar to anyone who\u2019s ever written anything: there is a point when you\u2019re not sure what to write. When you get to a beat along your outline and your brain just locks up. (Also applies if you\u2019re writing without a roadmap and letting it come to you \u2026 but it stops coming.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When your fingers stop moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not quite the same as \u201cwriter\u2019s block\u201d which, to my mind, feels like a lack of inspiration\/motivation. This is different. This is running into a tollbooth and not having enough for the fare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It just happened to me on a long-form project I\u2019m working on. I was making good progress; the writing was going well and the outline was helping me stay on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A brief aside: For me, outlines are confidence crutches. They tell me when I\u2019m ready to start writing. For a book like the one I\u2019m writing now\u2014a 200-plus page monstrosity\u2014an outline is necessary. The trip is too long to not plot a course. For a 20-page floppy, an outline is helpful less for story structure and more for plotting out page turns and splashes. If I\u2019m writing a TV pilot, I\u2019ll often start outlining as a way to get my head in the right space to execute and to help craft the big beats\u2014but I often shift from writing the outline to writing the episode because I\u2019m so excited to dig in. As with all things, your mileage may vary.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, so I was getting started on a new chapter and I couldn\u2019t find my way in. I kept staring at the chapter slug on the outline, but when I went to break it down, it just wouldn\u2019t break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was stuck in that space for almost three weeks until I realized something: ultimately, the book didn\u2019t want that chapter in it. It was trying to tell me that for those three weeks, but I wasn\u2019t listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every story will, after a while, tell you what it wants to be; what form it wants to take, what it needs to be the best version of itself. The trick is learning to listen. We often come to the work with a plan, an intent that allows us to push through the unknown and make something new that hadn\u2019t been in the world before. It\u2019s hubristic, of course, but all writing is. We have the gall to think that we<\/em> are the ones worthy of delivering the new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But part of the process\u2014or, at least, part of my<\/em> process\u2014is to listen to the signals your story is sending. If something is proving incredibly hard to write, you need to listen to that and try to figure out why. Maybe you\u2019re telling the story wrong, maybe it requires a different approach, and maybe this part of the story isn\u2019t necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it\u2019s hard, try and figure out why<\/em> it\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, this doesn\u2019t mean you should give up when it\u2019s hard. Some things are supposed to be hard. Some stories will refuse to give up the goods until you pick the lock. Sometimes you just have to put in the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You won\u2019t know how to proceed until you\u2019ve allowed yourself to trust that the story itself will light the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Marc Bernardin’s Devourer of Words appears the third Tuesday of every month here on <\/em>Toucan!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Written by<\/p>\n\n\n

Marc Bernardin<\/div>\n\n\n

Published<\/p>\n\n\n