Story Snares

I was talking to a friend today, catching up over lunch.  She asked me how my writing was going, as most of my friends do.  I wasn’t quite sure how to answer.  Yes, I have been writing, quite a bit, lately.  The problem is I haven’t been working on anything of my own.  My current project is a spinoff of a show I’ve been watching lately.  It’s less fanfiction than my personal continuation from the end of the series.  I’ve enjoyed working on it very much, but maybe it’s not what I should be spending my time on.

Then again, I do tend to get caught by stories.  Be it a book or a show or one of my own ideas, good stories get into my head, and until I’ve found a way to resolve the story somehow, at least temporarily, I can’t stop thinking about it.  I’ve spent many a day at work only half-focused on what I am doing, while the rest of my mind guides characters and events along the most logical path.

In fact, I think that is what a story is supposed to do.  Think about the language we writers use when talking about stories.  They talk about a ‘hook’ at the beginning, to lure the reader in as it were.  I think of myself as being ensnared, stuck in the story as if I’m in a trap.  It’s never a bad thing, but it can be inconvenient.

How do I get out?  The easiest way is just to finish the story, of course.  Sometimes I’ll spend hours at a time reading just so I can get through—with television shows, it can take days.  When that’s not an option, as with a book series which is not complete yet, or a show between seasons, I have to fully outline what I would do with the story if I were to continue writing.  This is always good fun, but it can have a downside: if the story comes back, and it’s not as good (in my opinion) as what I come up with, I tend to lose interest.  And of course sometimes a story just stretches out too long.  If I feel like the plot has moved past its natural ending, it loses a part of its hold on me.  I might keep up with it for old times’ sake, but it becomes a toothless trap, one I can slip out of easily.

Despite the inconvenience, I have to appreciate this need to know what happens, to find closure for a story.  It has brought me through a lot of very good story, and I have learned by example.  It is what has helped me to understand how a story takes shape and what not to do with one, and it forces me to practice this on my own.  If not for this, I would never have managed to finish any story of my own.  So I think I will keep working on my little play project, because any day I have spent putting words to paper—no matter what I am writing—is a good day.