When a Story Becomes Unstoppable
George Saunders’s statement perfectly encapsulates what I came to realize: writing boils down to committing yourself to slave over a keyboard every day, working with your story as though relating to a real person, faithful to listen and patient to learn. It means marching through the creative desert, the seasons of drought when you lack all inspiration or ideas. It means committing to whatever goals you have, refusing to abandon them until the work is finished.
While my “debut novel” took over three years to write (juggling your passion with school is a difficult balance), I truly started writing over ten years ago. Since then, I’ve abandoned multiple projects and cluttered my Dropbox with character sketches halfway concluded, recognizing that while I wanted to write, I didn’t have anything worth writing.
Examine what inspires you, what saddens you, what burns your chest because it’s so achingly beautiful…and keep writing about it. I found that the same themes resounded through every piece I attempted, recycling until they culminated in the novel I’m currently tackling. I drew upon every piece I’d previously attempted to build one, powerful story encapsulating years of lessons learned and stories remembered.
The true artist learns they aren’t an island; theirs is a world of truth, hope, and love. Upon discovering the inherent beauty of their own story, they find the inherent beauty in others’ stories. They paint an intricate picture of the world we share, a unique portrait of the lives they’ve learned from. The true artist draws beauty from their experiences and observations, forming a powerful story if THEY'RE STEADFAST WITH THEIR WORK.
The story cannot speak to you until it’s written. Commit to writing it, however bad it looks now.
2. Humility
This touches upon something just hinted at: no artist is an island. We’re byproducts of our observations and experiences, most of those gleaned from others. We are fundamentally social creatures, and our craft cannot flourish in darkness. Spend time around others, learn from others, humble yourself to hear others’ stories, and your art will flourish.
“The artist has one function—to affirm and glorify life.”- W. Edward Brown
Our art is our expression of the world we’ve received; it’s our gift back to everyone who’s helped along the way. Every generation beholds different perspectives of the same beauty, capturing and describing it for those who follow. As creatives, we humbly enter this pattern, bolstering the legacy for those behind.
3. Stories Worth Telling
Ah, the crux of the matter. Obviously, one needs a story worth telling to produce a story worth reading. What’s so often missed is that everyone holds a story worth telling, but few hold the courage to tell it. Your story is just as important as anyone else’s, and you hold a perspective no one can match. You hold the power to speak into someone’s soul, connecting by your unique voice and touch.
Maybe, it takes you years of writing to discover the story you need to tell. Maybe, it takes you over ten years of failed attempts, over three years producing the “debut novel” you’ve talked about until everyone’s sick of it…and you’re starting over again.
But it’s not starting from scratch, is it? You’ve been steadfast all along, licking your wounds and returning to your keyboard, your palette, or your studio. Humbly accepting criticism and collaborating with other artists to learn from their crafts. You’ve returned again and again because the passion’s built inside of you until you must find an outlet before exploding.
That’s when a story becomes unstoppable: you have no other choice but to finish.
For myself, this process occurred when I continued to write even while revising my “debut novel.” I continued to create, steadfast through the dry season, even when writing felt like smashing my head against a wall, because I knew another story existed. I knew there was something else to tell…and that process led to the present trilogy I’m tackling.
It was ten days into quarantine—three days after all smell disappeared underneath a sickly scent I can only describe as a combination of bad pizza, burnt eggs, and fresh cherries—that I concluded the first draft of my first novel in said trilogy. Now, I’m revising a 2nd draft while tackling the sequel, scrambling to keep up with the story’s development.
It’s a story of desert and savannah, slavery and war, gods and demons, dust and blood…and it fires me up!
The day I finished my first draft was a day of fatigue, fever chills, headaches, and bleary vision, but I sat back in my chair, read the final chapter, and for the first time ever recorded from a 1st draft, thought, “Wow, this is pretty good!”
Steadfastness, humility, and a story worth telling. Eventually, your story becomes unstoppable.
Tell me when that day comes! I look forward to reading our work.
