Recycled Wordplay

Are titles inspiration for a piece, or do they come from the substance? Is any writing wasted, even if it gets thrown away?

Titles, Tidbits, Tantalizing Taglines

Additionally Adding Alluring And Aggregated Alliteration

Okay that was too much.

I was having trouble coming up with a title to this one, so I decided to write whatever came to mind. Then I decided to write the piece first. Odd considering a few months ago I thought it a mistake when others would begin with a title and fill in from there. This is a revelation I wasn’t expecting, but aren’t they all? I made the transition from “titles should be derived from the substance” to “how can I start my inspiration from a catchy title?”.

What is the proper way to write, then? Do you start with a title? Do you start with a body? Do you start with an outline?

Sure, yes. That’s it.

Any of them, I think.

Writers block is a monster, but it’s a monster of our own creation. We create it ourselves by trying to be what we are not. We create it ourselves by trying to do what we cannot. We create it ourselves by attempting to cage thought, creativity, inspiration, revelation, understanding, words and the world within an impossibly tiny area of time and space.

As a writer, where do you feel you have the most good ideas? For me, it is mostly when I am not behind my computer, smashing away at these poor keys. They come when I don’t coax them forward, when I am not able to make them into an entire essay, post, section, blog, chapter, etc.

Basically the creative part of the brain is an asshole. A trickster. “Hey, you know how you can’t think of anything so you decided to get some sun and go fishing to clear your mind? I thought it’d be funny to FINALLY give you a few ideas. Oh, and you know that concept about entropy you’ve been wresting with? Here’s how it connects to EVERYTHING ELSE. Haha, good luck, chump.

Now good luck reeling in that fish while reaching for your notebook.”

What a monster.

That reflection provides insight. He’s annoying, but he’s making a point (the monster). I’ve been attempting to keep him trapped in that impossibly small box. He’s a temporally unbound entity that necessitates freedom in order to operate properly.

That doesn’t imply WE should have no constraints. That doesn’t imply there should NEVER be deadlines or cramming. It only means that some freedom and some deviation from those constraints allows the creativity to flow where attempts to cajole it forward have failed.

So title your piece before you write it. Write your piece before you title it. Read your title before you write it. I don’t know how the last one would work but I am not all knowing, so somebody may figure it out one day.

Don’t box yourself in all the time.

If you do, prepare to meet the monster you create.

Martyred Words

Now I have a better understanding of what this piece will be about. That seems obvious considering the five hundred or so words above, but I have a confession.

I wrote the two following paragraphs before understanding what I wanted to do with the original paragraph from the previous section. So everything BELOW that first paragraph was written AFTERWARD until the period that ends this sentence.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t go about these willy-nilly, as they say (that doesn’t count as a quote, right? That’s just a colloquialism, I think). I will often start writing about a topic on a whim or a hunch, but they don’t get published and are always at risk of going on the proverbial “burn pile” at any point.

The amount of words I have removed from existence in the past few months must total somewhere in the six digits, for better or worse. This doesn’t do much to assuage the frustration directed towards myself for retaining a low word count for my book. As always, it’s a “work in progress”. Could those have been used there?

No. The answer is no, but it all feels wasted. I wouldn’t put them in the book. They weren’t of sufficient quality in the order they were placed to merit such a resting place.

But they were valuable. They are valuable. It all helps. I wish I could maintain this perspective at all times, but you know what they say about wishes. I don’t actually know what they say, but I am pretty sure it’s not that they’re amazing.

“Wishes get stitches?”

Something like that.

All those words served their purpose. They helped reinforce what NOT to do. They showed me what doesn’t work, and that’s a blessing, for sure.

Continuing with the theme above, creativity and inspiration have a way of resisting when we attempt to coerce them to manifest using force. The words that have been removed, deleted, recycled, or just lost somewhere in my piles of loose paper served as inspiration catalysts of a sort.

If you can’t think of something to write, then just write. See what moves you or see what interests you.

Some of it will be dumb, even most of it. But there will be some gems.

Focus on those gems and they’ll lead you to notice threads of inspiration. Connections with other ideas you have or had prior.

Now you have the tools to do what writers have done so well in the past.

Spin those threads into ropes, for strength. Spin others into a tapestry, for beauty.

Then hang that tapestry of inspiration, wonder, magnificence and beauty for all the world to see.

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                                   This was written due to a realization of
                                   a potential crutch. Was I using quotes 
                                   as the appeal or draw for
                                   what I was writing?
                                   Perhaps, perhaps not.
                                   But the other question
                                   that needs to be answered
                                   by me is whether or
                                   not my writing can stand
                                   on its own or if quotes
                                   are what bear the
                                   weight, akin to
                                   pillars holding up
                                   a structure.
                                   I'd like to think not.
                                   But I have to make sure.

Thank you

Miguel Acero

for helping shine a light on this!

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