Trial and Error

I was at a meeting recently where we were tossing around ideas for how to grow the organization. Someone suggested we take advantage of our vibrant social media platform and ask our membership what they wanted. This made a certain kind of sense. After all, who doesn’t like getting what they want? And isn’t it also great when you know what you want, don’t yet have it, but can apply all your energy and creativity to acquiring or creating it?

The only problem is that most people don’t actually know what they want. At least not specifically. That is, everyone wants to enjoy themselves, and thrive, and feel safe, and be with people they love, and write stories they would want to read. But how you will thrive and feel safe, and the people you will love, and the stories you will want to tell will be different than for me. What’s more, if you’re like me, you have to go out and discover those specifics, usually by hanging out with people whose company you don’t enjoy, or telling stories for the wrong reasons, or working the wrong job. There’s a lot of trial and error.

Which is to say, discovery. I don’t ever actually know what I want until I see it or hear it or taste it. Or write it. It’s why I must sit with a blinking cursor, feeling the desire for the next sentence, knowing I want it, but not knowing what it is. That waiting involves a lot of, “No, not that. Not that either. Definitely not that,” as possible ideas present themselves. Until, finally, one comes, and I think, “Why yes. That’s it.” Asking me what I want is usually like asking me to tell you the ending of a story I haven’t finished. I’ll know when I get there.

It can make life feel a little uncertain. A good story is all about its specifics – the specific characters, the specific setting, the specific conflict. In fact, the more specific the better. What, writers are sometimes asked by agents and editors at conferences, makes your story unique? It’s important an author be able to answer this question. And yet we start without knowing hardly any of this. All we really know is that we want to tell a story, and that we want it to be compelling, and to hold our attention, and to be satisfying. So, we sit with a blinking cursor, full of an unformed desire and curiosity, which is all we ever need to grow anything we want.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com