Samantha Warren

I first wrote this glimpse into a writer's mind two years ago. As today is a writing day and I really should get a blog up as well, I figured it would be nice to take another look at it.

Go where the story leads you

It starts as a single thought, maybe just one word. It could even be an image. It grabs your attention for one reason or another. Maybe it was suggested for a word war or writing dash. Maybe the color caught your eye. Maybe it's the way the word flows through your brain and off your tongue. Regardless of how it got there, the word, the idea, the notion takes hold. It sinks its claws deep into the creative part of your brain and refuses to release you until you satisfy its desire for expression.

So you sit at your computer or pull out a notepad and get to work. You often don't know where you will begin, but that's ok. You just start writing. The words flow, putting themselves to paper as your mind explodes in a flurry of activity. The thoughts come and flood across the screen without your knowledge. You have a faint idea of what is taking place, but the story often writes itself. You are merely a conduit, a pipeline. The words form themselves into coherent sentences without your active interference. Your fingers simply make them visible.

You write, the thoughts coming faster than your feeble body can manage to get them formed in ink. You write, the story pushing you on unceasingly, refusing to release its hold on you until you have given it its last breath. You write, not because you want to, but because you have to. The story demands it. It demands to be told. And you are the only one who can tell it. So you write.

When you reach the end, you read. You read what you have written. And as long as you let the creative side of your brain take over and didn't interfere in the process, you enjoy what you read. Masterpieces come when intuition and inventiveness are allowed free reign and distractions are limited. Masterpieces are created when you lose yourself in the story and just let it flow. Masterpieces are destroyed when we begin to analyze the work we have created. Masterpieces are felt, not built.

I would like to add that Masterpieces can be refined and often need to be, but the initial process of just letting it flow is very important.