It’s okay to be confused
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
I’m not sure where I heard this, but when I have a student who is confused about what to do next on an assignment I usually say, “Confusion is the first step towards knowledge.”
Again, I have no idea who to attribute the quote to (and right now I’m too lazy to Google it), but it makes a ton of sense to me, especially as a writer.
Writing is a process of moving from confusion to comprehension, to not know where a story or character is going to knowing exactly what a character is saying and doing and why.
But why is it so hard to trust the process? Why is it so dang difficult to say “I have no idea exactly what this story is about but I’m just going to write until I get somewhere.”
Is it because writers are always told to have an outline? A logline? A treatment?
Is this why seemingly every creative writing teacher tells their students to complete a 100 item questionnaire about their characters?
Isn’t the best writing the stuff that bubbles to the top, unfiltered and raw?
Then why does it feel like the act of writing a story without having any idea of what’s going to happen next and to whom is heretical?
And to be clear, I’m not talking about the differences between a pantser and a plotter/planner. Even the plotter/planner MUST give themselves up to the moment in order to get the words on the page.
I think this is where the three rules of improv come in handy:
Never deny
Always reply
Never ask why
Let me riff on these just a bit and see where this goes….
Never Deny
When I’m in a scene with another actor and we’re improving, the first thing I have to take into consideration is that I have no idea what the other actor is going to say or not say or do or not do.
I have to be completely and totally aware of my fellow actor’s presence in the space.
I have to actively listen.
I have to put my focus on them and do my best to not think about me —- my actions, my thoughts, my ideas do not matter.
When my partner says something, I must believe the game and never deny what they’re saying, regardless of logic. If my partner says the sky is green, then the sky is green. (Yes, there are ways to circumvent this, usually through interrogation and questioning, but that’s for another blog post.)
When writing, never deny what your characters say or don’t say, where they move or don’t move, etc. Be present with your characters and let them do their thing. Your job is to listen, look, and learn about what makes them tic.
Don’t deny their actions so that it fits your outline or treatment. The know their story better than you do!
2. Always Reply
When I’m in my scene with my partner and we’re talking about the sky being green, inevitably there will be some strange twists and turns in our conversation.
The goal, however, is to converse…to keep the conversation moving.
It’s a tennis match: My partner serves, I hit it back, and back-and-forth we go until someone misses the ball.
The danger is in circuitous conversations, where my scene partner and me get caught in some odd game of logic and we keep circling back to the same points.
But how does this apply to writing?
Characters are always in action - speaking, moving, being. And with every action their should be an equal and opposite reaction, which causes your characters to react again.
We create beats - moments when the story progresses and develops.
The goal should be writing characters in action doing something and reacting to something being done/not done to them.
3. Never Ask Why
We live automatically 85% of the time (I don’t know if that number is accurate at all…but it sounds good!). We’re on autopilot most of our lives.
We’re just being and existing in time and space. We don’t control our environment. We don’t control our immediate reactions.
We never ask why when we’re in the moment. We ask why when the moment is gone.
Readers want to find out the why of a character on their own. It’s what’s fun about reading and discussing stories with others. We’re free and encouraged to come up with our own rationalizations for why a character said what they said or did what they did.
Never ask your characters why they’re doing what they’re doing. They don’t ask you why your writing their life story.
Let the actions and words be clues to a character’s why.
Confusion is the first step towards knowledge. Confusion is also the first step towards creating story.
The goal is always to live in the moment of creation by improving on the characters and their situation.
We don’t know what the next second will bring. We can’t get past the wall of now.
Neither can your characters. That’s what makes them real and identifiable. It’s what makes readers empathize with your characters.
Your characters are living their life in the moment as well, happiness and sorrow reveal themselves untethered.
Confusion is just learning how to comprehend your characters and their world.
