My sheepdog gave me some advice the other day, “Never take a bath. How will others know who you are if you don’t smell like you?”
Opps. Wrong advice. I meant some writing advice. He said, “Sheep like to wander. Sheep will wander at the first opportunity. You must be vigilant when you are herding sheep.”
That got me thinking about story and the way I struggle to figure out what really belongs. I think that it is easy, easy, easy to be distracted by all kinds of interests: language, interesting thoughts, diversions of all kinds. They make us take our eyes off our sheep and some of them wander off. The novel looses narrative momentum. A novel needs narrative momentum. It has to have it. You have to get all of your sheep from point A to point B. Don’t let your sheep wander.
6 comments:
Wise advice indeed. I noticed the first item on your list of things that distract is language. How true.
Now I'm trying to figure out how to implement your dog's other piece of advice to writing...
Yes--I love a good sentence. I do. But it's so easy to be distracted by that love. Just now I had to give up on a sentence I really liked. It took me in the wrong direction. I didn't want to admit it, but what happened was that one of those domino effects began. I began to drift away from my real story. Maybe this is another post. Anyway, thanks for the comment, Yat-Yee.
You and your dog are very wise.
My dog and I thank you Lindsey.
Yes, those blasted sheep can be sly critters.
Thank your dog for the wisdom, Brian.
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