If I've already lost you, here is a great explanation of the Four Powers of the Magus
Here is how I take each one of those concepts and apply it to my writing:
To Know~What I do not already know through personal experience or prior study that I need to know to write a story or even a scene in a story I research, study and learn. I also spend a lot of time getting to know my characters. I'll even write them in situations that aren't coming up in the current manuscript to see how they will react. I know my characters, know what I am writing and keep my mind open to the incoming knowledge that is always abundant.
To Dare~Every time I start a new piece, I am daring. Daring to discover what this story is that often surprises me, daring to reserve judgment, daring to look at my values and what I previously held as truth and sweep that all away. I might not have to, but I dare enough to consider and look
To Will~I have belief in my words. Belief that what I write are stories I feel needed to be told. I have the determination, desire and will to carry a piece through from start to finish. It doesn't mean that everything I write will be published, or that I will finish everything into a story. It means I will stay with it until I absolutely cannot gain anything further from the piece. I have learned a lot from what I have written that isn't usable.
To Be Silent~I talk about how I write, and the process but rarely do I mention what I am writing about nor do I let other people read my work until it is done or in the editing stages. For me this is a huge part of the process and sometimes its actually hard not to discuss what I am writing. What won't make it into publication isn't worth me speaking about, anyways. I keep silent because its human nature to comment and give advice and sometimes I lack tack, or a well-meaning suggestion can throw off the entire piece.
That is my usual process of writing. However, when working with a partner, most of this goes out the window. The "know" part is combining experience and knowledge from both of us, culling what might be useful to the story and debating what facets of knowledge we want to toss in there.
"To Dare", is a fine balance, I want to create the story without reservation but in this case, I am actually daring to let someone else in, to run the undeveloped ideas by him and ask for suggestions and feedback. It is also daring to be critical of your partner's work, to say "t that's not quite it" or even, "that's just crap".
"To Will" in this case, is quite easy when you are working with someone who has a healthy ego. I don't have to work so hard to belief and some days, Christopher has enough belief and faith in his work and in our work that I don't have to struggle so much with self-doubt.
"To Be Silent" this is the hardest part of my process to give up while we are working on this joint project. I have to talk about it as it is happening or else my artist isn't going to know what to draw!
We talk about Stargazing, constantly, expanding on the ideas, guessing where it could be a success and talking over what direction we want to take the piece in.
Well-meaning suggestions have been out of place, or off the mark but this is a collaboration and they needed to be heard. Now, we are silent when it comes to other people's inquiries and silent because of the contest rules. And that's as much silence as I am going to get on this one.
)O(
No comments:
Post a Comment