Dispatch from The Quest: Ben Odgren
Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the fourth week of Prep. Today’s dispatch: Ben draws a metaphor between running and writing:
About eight or nine weeks ago I found myself in the market for a new pair of running shoes. My left knee was starting to hurt after running and I figured the fact I hadn’t bought a new pair of running shoes in probably close to a year and a half had something to do with it. Pretty dumb of me.
So I go to the store and try on a pair of shoes, walk around in them for about 12 seconds, and buy them. Another dumb thing.
The next morning I go for a run to test them out. It’s good at first. And then it starts to get uncomfortable. It feels like something is digging into the little toe of my left foot. By the end of the run I’m 100% certain I need to go back to the store and return them, unless I really want to see how long it takes for my little toe to just fall off due to extreme chaffing.
So that day I return them, the shoe guy recommends me a new pair, I walk around in them for more than 12 seconds, and the problem is solved.
Basically, all this prep work before getting down to business has been extremely helpful. And I realize that doesn’t mean that once the real writing starts that there won’t be some hiccups along the way. I’ll zig where the story unexpectedly decides to zag. But the work we’ve done so far in figuring out character, plot points, set pieces, etc., has been invaluable. When the story does decide to do something different than I was expecting, I’ll have a dozen weeks of writing exercises and notes from the group to fall back on to help adapt and course-correct.
There’s definitely something to be said about diving right in and seeing where the story takes you. If that works for you, great. I wish it worked that way for me. But more often than not it leads to some serious toe-chaffing.
Ben underscores a point that can never be made enough: The vital importance of the prep-writing part to the story-crafting process. But I’d like to pick up on this idea of running and writing as it is an apt metaphor.
I started running about 30 years ago. I have kept at it more or less the entire time [nowadays I alternate, one day run, the next day bike].
There is something about the persistence of keeping at it, day after day, step after step that resonates with my rhythm of writing. It’s like the act of running and writing reinforce each other. Both require effort. Both require intentionality. Both yield results.
And there’s this: I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been stuck with a story problem where in going for a run, the solution occurred to me. Moreover I do some of my best brainstorming during runs.
I am reminded of a line in the Bible attributed to the Apostle Paul [2 Timothy 4:7]: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
That pretty much sums up what I feel whenever I type FADE OUT on a script.
On Monday, October 22, participants in The Quest are scheduled to type FADE IN. There are dozens of other writers taking advantage of the Go On Your Own Quest initiative who do the same thing.
When we type FADE IN, we begin a race.
Keep running, my friends. Keep writing. All the way to FADE OUT.
Tomorrow: Another Dispatch from The Quest.
About Ben: Maine writer with a love for pulpy genre movies, keeping library books out for a little too long, and strong coffee. Twitter: @benodgren.