Today’s video is an oldie, but a goodie. Is it a metaphor for the writing life? If so, explain in the comments below. Who is whom or what according to your allegory?
[Can’t see the video in your newsletter? Please click through to the site to watch.]
Well, let’s see. The running animal is the hard-working, brilliant author. The tree is the disinterested agent. The lions are the curious but unconcerned editors. 🙂
There is an argument, though, that the author might have altered its direction slightly. Though death by tree seems better than death by lion’s teeth, so perhaps it was a suicide run.
Sometimes, when you’re hungry for a story, inspiration comes special delivery without your having to manufacture it. 🙂 That’s actually happened to me several times. I was in desperate need of a workshop entry for school. But I had nothing–no ideas, zip. So I prayed about it, because the deadline for sending 15-20 pages of a story was coming at the end of the week. The next day, I had a story idea and cranked out 17 pages! I submitted the pages an hour before the deadline.
The plot ideas seem so cunning
as I have them come to me,
faster, faster, ever running,
straight into a plot-hole tree
to expire at my feet,
for there is no-way to revive
a nice love story sweet cute-meet
when no-one makes the final page alive,
so I guess zombie dystopia
won’t mesh with rom-com after all,
and therefore, friends, I really hope ya
won’t mind me let this genre fall,
and move on to takes its place
with epic Amish lost in space.
The little sprinting guy is a pantser and the lions are plotters. He has so much energy, and then runs into plot hole and is immediately dead. Meanwhile the plotters are steadily sitting there watching because they don’t (always) have this problem.
Oh, and the giraffe is the non writer friend who is staring at this whole thing like ???
Oh, my stars! Yes, that fits very well! I could apply that to a profession I have had for many years, as well.
I am the lion and God brings what I need — miraculously!
As an explanation: my first answer was brilliant. I was interrupted and returned to find it gone. Therefore this second attempt took on the aura of tragedy.
The giraffe is the author observing the gazelle of her idea, sleek, trim, well paced and bursting with energy only to run smack dab into immovable reality. Expiring before the antagonists has a chance to react. However, the plot twist, the Lions are the protagonists, the gazelle the inciting event and the author seriously in danger of being devoured.
I laughed so hard when I saw this video!! I watched the same thing with a dog while riding my bicycle through Eastern Kentucky. The Appalachians are quite steep, though short. On one very long uphill a German Shepherd spotted me and took off across a rather large yard. I tried pedaling faster but knew I was dog meat. Right then a coal truck comes from the opposite direction downhill. I realize it might buy me time. As I watched, the dog was so intent on me he did not see the large oak tree in his path. He hit the tree every bit as hard as the Elan. I almost fell off my bicycle laughing so hard. So ends that dog attack.
As for the application to writing:In my current story about Russian and Alaskan interactions I got so busy writing about the Alaskan perspective that I couldn’t answer a simple question. What does this story mean to anyone “outside” (what we call the lower 48). So, now I am considering the audience I show have been considering all along.
Thanks for the memory and the question.
I recently found the following message in a fortune cookie: take no shortcuts along the road to success. I’ve taped it to my desk.
I fear the antelope may have done just that, thus running into a wall, or tree in this case. Unfortunately for the creature, the lions now have a free meal.
Never rush through a project. I’ve learned rushing anything, usually holds a backlash of some kind in the end where I end up devouring a part of myself, wasting time and energy.
As craftspeople, one must pay their dues to obtain greatness in the desired outcome. Hours of writing and editing, revisions. No virtuoso gets there without hours of agonizing practice. The same holds true for authors–virtuosos of words.
The giraffe, “Some lessons are learned the hard way.”
Great post–thanks!!!
The gazelle(?) is 99.9999% of writers’ first books. The tree is reality. The lions are negative emotions ready to devour writers’ aspirations.
Love it!
This morning I sat in front of my laptop at 6:30 a.m. to try the advice to write early before anyone or anything is awake to disturb you. It worked. I wrote nonstop for 90 minutes and edited three devotions. The antelope was me going so fast at such an early hour (for me to write) that I saw nothing else until I hit The End.
I can only image the conversation between the lions.
“Bob, did you see that?”
“Sure did. I think UberEATS has the wrong address, but hey, we’ll share.”