“Great are they who see that thoughts rule the world.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everything begins and ends with thought. We think to create, to achieve, to live. Positive thoughts keep us happy and healthy. A negative thought can be like a disease that when left alone can spread and eventually destroy.
Writers pull out that blank sheet of paper or face that computer screen and wait for a thought to form. (I’ve also heard this described as waiting for a drop of blood to form on their foreheads.) They take that one thought and manipulate it, mold it, until hopefully, it becomes more than one.
We get our fiction from thought, then we sometimes turn around and yes, over-think our words until we aren’t sure they’re real.
Ever pull out something you wrote and barely recognize it? You might not even remember writing it. Ever spend a day writing complete crap then stumble upon something you wrote that’s good? Really good?
I’ve been doing this lately. Finding bits and pieces of scenes that just pulse and vibrate with life. I even found scenes for my current WIP that I jotted down last year while working on something else.
I’m thinking of putting them into a collage and posting them on my office wall as a constant reminder that yes, I am capable of good writing at times. They’ll also remind me that most of those pieces came when I was relaxed and doing something else– that out of nowhere, there came this one, pure, shining thought.
A thought that took root and grew.