Dispatch from The Quest: Jordan Earls

Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the second week of Prep. Today’s dispatch: Jordan Earls writes about something she calls “relevance,” the exhilaration of writing… and the fear of writing as well:

Myself and a couple close friends have this theory called “relevance.” You know when you get in the car and you want that one, really obscure song that rarely gets played to be on the radio and when you turn the radio on it’s playing? Relevance. Or when you mention a bizarre movie, like Science of Sleep, in passing and then you walk downstairs to find your roommate watching that movie on network TV? Relevance.

Of course, there are more significant things. For example, on March 25th this year I moved and in my new bedroom I found a fortune that read, “Remember three months from this date. Good things are in store for you.” Three months later was June 25th, the day I got an email from Scott Myers informing me that I made the top twenty of The Quest. I still have that fortune in my wallet. It may seem like the disillusioned faith of some cultish religion (which reminds me, The Master was fantastic, everyone should go see it), but I like to believe moments of relevance are to signify that you’re doing something right.

I try to find this theory of relevance in my writing. Last week I was struggling with one of the main characters and her subplot. Her subplot didn’t blend with the primary storyline, it felt like two different movies. I knew what needed to change, but I couldn’t figure out how. After writing until 4am, I still had nothing. So, I slept on it.

The next morning, I woke myself up with two cups of steaming black coffee and got to work. I finally figured out why it wasn’t working — I didn’t know what the story was about. Or I knew, but I didn’t know (because that makes more sense).

So, I looked to my characters to figure that out and here’s what I got:

“We’re constantly bombarded with exterior limitations and rules. They blind us to the greatest truth of all: the most difficult limitations to break are those we set for ourselves. We chain ourselves up with fear and we allow it to hold us back from our lives, but we’re all approaching a point where we can’t do that anymore.”

I’m not sure if this dialogue will end up in the script, but it sums up the story’s core significance and it sums up a relevant theme in my life (and I’m sure the other Quester’s as well). I believe Scott Reynolds also touched upon it with his dispatch last week. Learning I was an official Quester was probably the most exhilarating news of my life. But the thing is, big opportunities are always big risks because they mean putting yourself out there.

As we get further into prep, I hope everyone is discovering new ideas that connect you with your stories. With the GITS Quest Forums we all now have the opportunity to brainstorm and bounce ideas off other GITS readers.

When I realized the core of my story was relevant to my life, I had a moment of clarity: I’m on the right path, I just have to let go of my fears and trust my instincts. It also got me even more excited for the story, which can never hurt. And then I did my little relevance dance… which is something like this:

Let’s face it, writing is a total trip. High highs. Low lows. Not for the faint of heart. The very idea of writing a story is both thrilling and scary as shit. So we look for inspiration wherever we can find it. That includes ‘relevance,’ those moments or events where it — at least — seems like the Universe is giving us a big fat thumbs-up for our creative wanderings. Like fortunes we find. Surprising songs on the radio. Coincidences we experience.

Carl Jung had a name for this sort of thing: synchronicity.

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, yet are experienced as occurring together in a meaningful manner.

Sure, it could just be coincidence. But when we are writing [read: flailing] and it’s all hands on deck as we try to find any semblance of meaning in that chaos, why not choose to believe them as relevance?

As a writer, we take whatever the hell we can get.

Tomorrow: Another dispatch from The Quest.

About Jordan: Portland based writer. Connoisseur of film with an affinity for Nolan, Boyle and Jackson. Twitter: @jordanpaige00.

Comment Archive