Cheesy Writings

I was thinking the other day about how stories develop with regard to time. It’s all fine and dandy to say words flow from my brain into my fingers, through the keyboard and eventually onto the printed page. That’s all normal and the way most writers like the process to go. You start by planning a story, do a little research, then sit down and the words start to come.

But sometimes, it’s not like that, It’s not like that at all. As I was saying, the other day I was having a little think. I’d had trouble sitting down to write a few weeks back, putting me behind in my word-count. Not what you call writer’s block, more-like just bone-idleness. I’d had a number of sections, all set aside and ready to write. I had nothing on and plenty of time. What happened? Absolutely nothing. Well, to be precise, only about five hundred words, that was all. Not what you would call an impressive haul of sentences and paragraphs for a week. The playstation got a lot of use that week, so did the movie collection. Anyway, eventually I got out of that funk and started to write again. But this is when I started to think again. As I started to put words on the page I decided, after some flashes of inspiration, to change certain scenes, some quite considerably. And I thought to myself, would I have made these changes if I’d written these passages when I had intended to. Would the idea to deviate from the plan have sparked into my tiny little brain the week before, the same way it had now? Would it have sparked differently, moving the narrative in a completely different direction? Would it have sparked at all? Now, I’m quite happy with the changes I made. I think they make the story better. So does this mean that if I’d forced myself to slam words onto the page during that hiatus period, would the story be as good?

This got me thinking some more. Is a good passage only capable of flowing out once? In a universe, where we are told every outcome there can ever be, exists, can the same words flow multiple times. If you change even the smallest daily routine, does that change your story forever; for better or worse? Taking those days off, did I absently lose an even greater story, one that is now lost in the strands of time forever? Is there a perfect moment to write? Are there only certain times when you can actually write to the best of your ability, and how do we spot them?

Of course there is another answer to all these question. Perhaps I shouldn’t eat so much cheese before bedtime.

Anyway, food for thought.