{"id":2575,"date":"2011-01-31T10:57:34","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T16:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2011-01-31T10:57:34","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T16:57:34","slug":"monday-motivation-be-quiet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2011\/01\/31\/monday-motivation-be-quiet\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Motivation: Be Quiet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"“I think it’s bad to talk about one’s present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act.\u00a0 It discharges the tension.”
\n– Norman Mailer
\n<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My wife and I have a rule: I’m not allowed to talk about a work in progress.<\/p>\n

If I have something I need to talk through, I have a writing group I can go to. (But really — I don’t talk about story details with them, either.)<\/p>\n

I don’t talk about what I’m working on because then the story’s told.<\/p>\n

How can I know if something works if a reader knows what’s coming?<\/p>\n

Why Do We Talk?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Usually when we want to talk about a story it’s because we’re not being that productive. We want that rush that comes from doing something creative without doing the actual work!<\/p>\n

It’s much easier to talk about a story than to write a story; I hear people talk about ideas all the time.<\/p>\n

In most cases, the people who talk the most are the people who rarely finish things.<\/p>\n

Shut Up<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you find yourself wanting to talk about stories all the time, step back and look at your production.<\/p>\n

We all have that need to get a story out, and if we’re not writing stories, we tend to talk about them — even though the satisfaction from talking about ideas isn’t the same as actually finishing <\/em>a story.<\/p>\n

If you genuinely have to talk something through, find one or two people who understand what you need and talk about just the one thing<\/em> that’s giving you problems. Don’t talk about anything else because the moment you do, you give away more than just what happens — you give away the reason for people to read what you write.<\/p>\n

Why would I want to read your mystery if I know who did it, why they did it, and what happens to them in the end?<\/p>\n

There are more people who talk about ideas than people who actually finish things.<\/p>\n

Keep quiet, stay productive, and be the person who hands over a stack of finished pages instead of lungfuls of hot air…<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Image by dobrych<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I think it’s bad to talk about one’s present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act.\u00a0 It discharges the tension.” – Norman Mailer My wife and I have a rule: I’m not allowed to talk about a work in progress. If I have something I need to talk through, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[29,59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}