Ready... Aim... · 11:59pm Jan 24th, 2015
As a writer, there are numerous factors you have to consider in your story. Are you keeping the reader engaged with your balance of showing and telling? Does the plot make sense, or at the very least, will it make sense in the end? Have you obeyed all the proper rules of grammar, like not using none of those double negatives?
Wait...
Screw it, moving on. You see my point.
With all the things a writer has to worry about, it can be easy to forget the very first one. We writers are like archers. We have a bow of our skill notched with an arrow of creativity, but then we have a full 360 degree field of fire to aim it. Where is our story? Where do we put the arrow?
First of all, there’s one thing about arrows that writers know all too well. That “straight as an arrow” idea? It sure as hell doesn’t apply to an arrow in flight.
The writer that doesn’t see their arrow bend and contort in its flight is the writer that doesn’t write. This slow motion view gives a writer a unique ability: we can stop the arrow and notch it again if we wish. We can change the arrow with our skill and aim again.
We do this because there is one thing we still cannot do: change direction.
When the arrow flies, the arrow flies.
There’s a saying about how a hunter that chases two hares will catch neither. Likewise, an arrow can’t move in two directions. As much wiggle room as a writer has, there is only one story they can aim for at one time.
That is the most important decision a writer can make. It is, in fact, the only choice that truly matters. If there is no decision to aim, there is nothing to write. Everything stems from that.
All the knowledge, all the technique, all the planning, all the crap that goes into this thing we do, it can all be reduced to one thing: a writer taking aim at a target.
Do you want to make ‘em laugh? Make ‘em cry? Warm some hearts? Rip them out? All four of those require you to do the exact same thing. You have to hit that target. Characters, setting, perspective, all of it serves one purpose. One idea.
One point.
I’m going to count however many views this blog gets as wins. X number of views means X number of wins. I’ve put an afternoon of thinking and writing into this, and I’m curious how many people will read past that intentional double negative thing up above. That’s my point. I got you to read this far, so I think I hit my target.
Archers is all we are. Each shot will stick out like a sore thumb for everyone to see, and all we can do is focus on the next one.
We’re the ones that take aim and let the arrows fly. That is the first thing, and yet everything, there is to writing. When you guide your arrow to the end of its journey, you found your target.
Be proud of that.
This is something that I think some people forget - a story doesn't have to be grammatically perfect, or use the right amount of literary devices, or show and tell in the right proportion to be good. It just has to reach somebody.
Love the analogy, and I do agree. The story I'm most proud of is the one that wasn't edited at all and was directly influenced off another story.
That arrow was my favorite, one that I made sure I made reach the target, no matter the case. And I'm glad I did.
Which is why everytime i say straight as an arrow I mean not at all.
to quote Allucard. theres no one alive that could comprehend my sexual preference. while not exactly true still a good line
this has been derailing the train with Chalice next up cooking with Maris. "BOILING BROCCOLI IS FOR TOOTHLESS PUSSIES"