The love of a good challenge

My wife recently asked me what I think is the most challenging part of writing? That’s a tough one. Let me premise that I love the craft and interact with it every single day. There is nothing I’d rather do instead. I have many hobbies, but only in writing have I found such a passionate love that I will devote hours to it daily, even when it’s torture. Are there times I don’t want to write? Yes, of course, but if I hush that cranky baby, I am putting words on the page within minutes and suddenly find myself soothed by my world.

But, yes, there are plenty of challenges. It is often a lonely and stationary existence, which is not always suitable for the health (daily walks and calendar reminders to get up every 30 minutes help). When the words aren’t flowing, it can be frustrating at best and maddening at worst. There never seems to be enough time in the day. Self-doubt weighs you down. And people who are not writers don’t really understand you- including family and friends. Some may even think you’re crazy because of what you write (or at least strange). They conclude that because you can create such a believable villain, for example, that you too must be out of your mind. People may respect you for your imagination (I think) but still submit you to the most cutting criticism. I mean, would someone step into an artist’s gallery, look at a painting and say, “I hate it,” right to the artist’s face? I doubt it. But for a writer, we take honest opinions like a boxer receiving blows to the gut. However, these are all struggles of living the writer’s life, and you get used to them in time.

It’s a trial of the craft that keeps me up at night. I love descriptions to the point where I’ve had to learn to cut and trim my flowery prose considerably. World-building is a joy, character development, an adventure into personality alchemy, and dialogue I can write all day. In life, I don’t really like conflict, but in writing, I savor it. But action, action is tough, and I think it is my greatest challenge. And yes, it is different than conflict. You can easily get conflict in a single gesture- he gave her the middle finger- boom, conflict. I’m talking about chases, fights, and especially battles. But it doesn’t even have to be that grandiose. It could be as little as facial expressions, mannerisms, and simple movement on the “stage.”

There are several reasons for the difficulty. One, it is hard not to get bogged down and keep things moving. Too much description and momentum wains, too little, and it loses realism, intensity, or seems lazy. It is hard to find the balance between too much and too little. You want the reader to use their imagination and have the freedom to create the image in their head, but you want to help them along as much as possible, so their vision is consistent with the needs of your story. Battles are tough. How do you weigh the onslaught of sensory stimulation of a single soldier with the godly view of a general to convey the intensity of war while showing the reader what is actually going on? War is also nasty. How can you be realistic without grossing out the reader so much they stop reading? It leads to a lot of careful choices.

Second, it is hard to think up new ways of describing movement- any type of movement. In writing, mannerisms and facial expressions go a long way in character development. They also help the reader know who is talking or how that person is feeling without saying- Erik is angry. Even those who don’t write have heard the famous adage of showing and not telling. But finding new ways of explaining eyes, eyebrows, mouths, nostrils, wrinkles, head movement, gestures, etc., can be fun, but it is also tedious when you have to stop the story’s progression to think of how you can convey the character is angry without just saying they are angry.

And three, if you’re writing action right, it can be stressful. It’s action, for god’s sake! I always write action scenes last in a chapter. I will do a quick summary to save the place and then quickly move on as if it’s a creepy-crawly and better to just let be while I finish everything else. Then, I take a big reassuring breath and return to the scene in my protective suit of armor to dive into the thrills.

Stephen King has said that he doesn’t like roller coasters, which consistently garners a laugh from an audience, but he clarifies with an interesting point. He goes on to say that he builds the roller-coaster but doesn’t have to ride them. I loved the wit of this quote at first, but then I got to thinking (always a bumpy road). No one doubts that King is a prolific and successful author, and I am just a humble dreamer, but I found myself disagreeing with this concept. I think it’s an analogy that demonstrates the path to writing Master King has grown into after decades of success. He knows what works. He has the secret recipe and follows this plan to spit out two novels a year, just like a baker baking cakes. I’d probably be the same way if I had such a long and fruitful career, but it almost seems like a writer’s death to me. Writing should be stressful. You should ride that roller-coaster as you build it. It should elicit the fight-or-flight response- make your heart pound, skin sweat, and force you to stand up to avoid its visceral shock (which is good for the health anyway). It shouldn’t always be enjoyable. If it creates stress for me to write it, it will energize the reader when they read it. Hence, writing action is challenging, but it is precisely this challenge that makes writing fun.

Of course, I’m an eternal student of the craft. Perhaps someday I will look back on this article after mastering a recipe for action and say, “Oh, Scott, you were such an idiot. The most challenging part is actually…”

How about you, dear reader? What is the most challenging aspect of writing for you (or what would you imagine it would be)? What do you struggle with, what keeps you up, how do you push past it, and why do you love it? Leave a comment below!

Cheers!