(image (c) Mark Ryden)
Sometimes a story feels so expansive and exciting that you have this desire to get it all out at once. I equate the process to a traffic jam at the Holland Tunnel, too much being squeezed into too little at a rate that it simply can't handle. All you end up doing is gumming up the works.
As one who has suffocated many a story in such a reckless manner, I'm continuously trying to learn a little patience. It's never easy balancing enthusiasm with practicality, but it's a chore that must be done. In the end, I believe the story benefits from a tempered approach.
When I dive in too fast, too deep, I find that I'm in such a rush to get all of these ideas out that I forget the simple joy of writing them. A story needs room to grow within the pages. As a writer, you need to be in the moment of the place, not focused on the next place you wish it to go. I also find that spending some time in the moment usually leads to more interesting adventures than the ones that were previously planned. When in doubt, always take the scenic route.
Love that image. I'm told painting can be like that - you're not sure where to start or what to put down first in the first rush of ideas. When I was writing articles I often had to write in layers and then drastically reduce at the end.
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