Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Coloring Outside the LinesDaisy Dexter Dobbs wrote a thought provoking post last week. I've thought about it for days. I hope you will read Daisy's post as I can't do it proper justice here. In a nutshell, she deals with some common personality traits of fiction writers. One common trait is the propensity for coloring outside the lines. And true to form, many of the readers commenting on the post say they, too, color outside the lines.
As a child, I desperately wanted to color inside the lines. I really did. And I never really could. This frustrated me until one day I didn't care anymore. I was going to go my own way and color the way I wanted to. As a romance writer, I am expected to write "inside the lines". Sure, there is room for creativity, but my mind and my characters often veer off course. And this has frustrated me. I am often asked what line I'm targeting. I've never known exactly what to say. Once I told a fellow writer, "I'm not targeting any line. I'm just writing stories." I wish I could describe the shock on her face. Then she told me I'd never get published that way.
Ummm. I don't care anymore. It occurs to me, just as it recently did to Jenn, maybe I'm writing the wrong story. I love reading and writing "literary" pieces with unexpected endings. And I don't need a happy ending to be satisfied. Maybe all this time I've been a plotter, when I should have been a pantser. Whatever. I'm still a writer - a published writer. One who is officially coloring outside the lines.
