Born With It

You may recall my recent boo-hooing about writer's block and the really quite inspirational Haiku I wrote as a result, which captured my tortured frame of mind quite nicely, I think. This was only one dusty footprint in an arid dearth of fiction for me; and it had actually gone on for the greater part of three years—boy, was I thirsty—ever since I received 100 rejections for what is surely the greatest American masterpiece never sold.

But woo-hoo! The dam has broken, and the water is now flowing through the gullies—thanks in large part to my writing partner Winter (the witty muse for Crib-Notes and HorseCentric), who allows me to be chatty during critique meetings. Yes, chattiness is encouraged. But only a special kind of chattiness. No mention of kids and bodily functions, no sordid true confessions (actually, the sordid ones are okay), and no whining about whether we'll ever be paid, published novelists or not. Cuz we will. No, this chattiness turns our mushy blocked brains into super powers.

Here's why. Most women don't even know what they think until they say it. And since knowledge energizes our creative juices, we can use this byproduct of natural female communication to flesh out scenes, challenge our characters' motives, and insert all manner of dark and twisty rivers for our readers to float along on. And isn't that much better than banging your brain against a blinking cursor while flogging yourself silly? (Stupid, stupid, stupid.) Because with flogging comes cussing and drinking and Haiku writing you can't show your mother. Well, I can show my mother, but maybe yours would gasp and recoil in horror. Which might actually be kind of fun. Try this at home and report back.



To answer the age-old question, YES, we were born with it: the chatty gene. It's just how we're wired. This little girl was just testing out a story idea (and as usual, the man did not get it). As a writer with biology on my side and Winter on my case (she is a slave driver), things are looking up. One o' these days I will once again have a polished manuscript to shop around. And maybe some more Haiku. Bet you can't wait for that.
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