Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Balkan Voodoo

It's a sleepy, rainy, dark DC day, but I still have managed to drag myself, my laptop and my mouse out of my house. (I used to be a poet, but I hate rhyme.) On my way to my favorite writing cafe, I stumbled upon a dead rat (Columbia Road) the size of my smaller cat. Despite the fact that my head wants to be on a pillow, or on my soft, fluffy Rubenesque cat (the other one), I will start rewriting my Balkan Voodoo story (my baby) in a few minutes. Right after I finish this blog. Why? Because I got feedback both from my teacher and my writing group, though a bit contradictory, but still, very valid, useful feedback. And I'm actually excited about this rewrite! I want to perfect it and unleash it onto the world!
It's amazing what an accepted story (for publication) can do for your confidence as a writer.
I was describing my writing process to my colleague-writer last night, in my car, while almost driving into the Zoo at 10pm (thank God for the gates, otherwise I would be writing this from a lion's belly).
I get an idea for a story. I set the characters up in my head. And I start writing, from my head onto the blank page, visualising what they would do, what would happen, what could happen...It's like a movie in my head, rolling, and I'm just a journalist, writing it down. I think it comes from years of acting classes and actual acting. I don't stop to look up the words. I don't know what will happen at the end, until the end. I swear. So it was funny to me when some writers said last night that they knew what was going to happen at the end while they were reading it.
"I didn't," I said. And I didn't.

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