Dread Prevents Action...?
Have you ever been faced with a chore that you are absolutely dreading, and because of that dread you procrastinate until your dread builds and builds until it turns into anxiety? This is a bit dramatic I know, but this is what I am faced with right now as I come to the end of "Death in the Valley". Since the story has a real life ending and I can't bring myself to gloss over that in the fictionalized account...well, I know what's gonna happen.
I once attended a writer's conference where Richard Dutcher (GOD'S ARMY, BRIGHAM CITY, STATES OF GRACE) was a keynote speaker. Afterwards, he signed copies of the book God's Army, that he had written from the movie screeplay. As my turn to get my copy signed I asked him if he had trouble writing the real tough scenes in his work (the loss of one elder's testimony, the death of Doc, etc.) and he told me that on the contrary, he reveled in them as it enabled him to experience the very real emotions of his characters who might be fictionalized to you and me, but to him, their creator, it validated his creation.
I hate sad endings to stories. Even the ones that have a redeeming quality to them. Let me repeat, I hate sad endings to stories. You'll hear me repeat this often if you continue to read my stories and posts. The kicker is that most of MY stories have sad endings or sad endings in the middle before a new beginning (the redemption). There, I have said it, now after that spoiler alert, I still expect you to read my work.
Back to Death in the Valley. I have to finish this story and I am dreading the telling of it. I have procrastinated for over 5 days now, working on other stories, prettying up my social networking sites, etc. But every time I have sat down to the computer, the words describing the ending scenes of this story run through my head demanding to be birthed on to the computer screen. And every time my heart aches and my hands shy away from typing the awful words.
The story will end, even if it is through teary eyes that I watch the rest of the story unfold. I hope you'll buy it (I am jumping the gun) and read it and appreciate the story even though it is a sad one. It has to be told. It has bugged me for many years.
I once attended a writer's conference where Richard Dutcher (GOD'S ARMY, BRIGHAM CITY, STATES OF GRACE) was a keynote speaker. Afterwards, he signed copies of the book God's Army, that he had written from the movie screeplay. As my turn to get my copy signed I asked him if he had trouble writing the real tough scenes in his work (the loss of one elder's testimony, the death of Doc, etc.) and he told me that on the contrary, he reveled in them as it enabled him to experience the very real emotions of his characters who might be fictionalized to you and me, but to him, their creator, it validated his creation.
I hate sad endings to stories. Even the ones that have a redeeming quality to them. Let me repeat, I hate sad endings to stories. You'll hear me repeat this often if you continue to read my stories and posts. The kicker is that most of MY stories have sad endings or sad endings in the middle before a new beginning (the redemption). There, I have said it, now after that spoiler alert, I still expect you to read my work.
Back to Death in the Valley. I have to finish this story and I am dreading the telling of it. I have procrastinated for over 5 days now, working on other stories, prettying up my social networking sites, etc. But every time I have sat down to the computer, the words describing the ending scenes of this story run through my head demanding to be birthed on to the computer screen. And every time my heart aches and my hands shy away from typing the awful words.
The story will end, even if it is through teary eyes that I watch the rest of the story unfold. I hope you'll buy it (I am jumping the gun) and read it and appreciate the story even though it is a sad one. It has to be told. It has bugged me for many years.
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