After you've been writing for a while, you start to know--as much as anyone can KNOW anything--when a story is good. It feels charmed. That's the only way I can describe it. "If Wishes Were Horses", my first sale, felt charmed when I wrote it. Scenes in my first novel did, too. And there is one whole section of the PhD novel that makes me happy and calm and sparkly every time I open the file (here's to hoping that the other parts start to take on that particular sheen when I work on revisions).
The story that comes out next week, "Fairchild's Folly", had that same buzz when I wrote it. I'm not sure what it's from: Knowing that I'm on the right track early on? Understanding what a story is *about* (the story that lives beneath the plot mechanics--the story underneath the story) when I'm writing the first draft? That feeling of standing back and watching it all unspool itself (aka, getting out of my own way)?
I. Don't. Know.
But I have accepted that I don't have to know why. That I will likely never know why. And the more I write, the more I catch that mojo. Perhaps it comes from practice--a certain maturity or ability to let go of the fear and let the story happen rather than overthinking it (again, getting out of your own way).
What I DO know, though, is that charmed stories take on a life of their own out in the world. And, if you're lucky enough to have amazing people who believe in you and your work, those little charmed stories become bigger than the page. This is slowly happening to "Fairchild's Folly", which isn't even out in public yet, HERE and HERE! (I'll come clean when I can.)
The story that comes out next week, "Fairchild's Folly", had that same buzz when I wrote it. I'm not sure what it's from: Knowing that I'm on the right track early on? Understanding what a story is *about* (the story that lives beneath the plot mechanics--the story underneath the story) when I'm writing the first draft? That feeling of standing back and watching it all unspool itself (aka, getting out of my own way)?
I. Don't. Know.
But I have accepted that I don't have to know why. That I will likely never know why. And the more I write, the more I catch that mojo. Perhaps it comes from practice--a certain maturity or ability to let go of the fear and let the story happen rather than overthinking it (again, getting out of your own way).
What I DO know, though, is that charmed stories take on a life of their own out in the world. And, if you're lucky enough to have amazing people who believe in you and your work, those little charmed stories become bigger than the page. This is slowly happening to "Fairchild's Folly", which isn't even out in public yet, HERE and HERE! (I'll come clean when I can.)
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