Dorothy and her Ruby Slippers
Time for another character from Oz.
To me, every writer must be like Dorothy.
When I go to visit middle school kids and talk about being an author, I tell them two things to break the ice and set up my discussion:
Hence Dorothy. She was always trying to get home from Oz, but along the way, she embraced the journey, she embraced her newfound friends, and she was fearless. Or at least hid her fear pretty well. And I see that all as a metaphor for intellectual curiosity.
Breaking out of a rut is one of the best things you can do as a writer. Questioning the world and the people in it . . . being curious about what people do for a living, their motivations, their back stories, all of it can eventually pour into your fiction.
But the other part of it is Dorothy eventually did make it home. The way I see it, that's the grounded part of being a writer, the "know thyself" part. Because you can take all the knowledge and information and emotions that you have culled, but unless you ground it, place it in order, have a firm foundation in craft, and have a decent sense of direction, you're going to get lost in the process and you'll be stuck in Oz forever. While yes, Oz seems to have a nice supply of poppies and the Lollipop Guild, it's not home.
So the lesson I take from Dorothy is follow that Yellow Brick Road, visit all the magical places, but root yourself in the skills you've honed as a writer so it's not one big sloppy mess.
Residents of Oz? Any take on this?
To me, every writer must be like Dorothy.
When I go to visit middle school kids and talk about being an author, I tell them two things to break the ice and set up my discussion:
- I have the best job in the world because I get to write in my PJs and my commute is 30 seconds from my bedroom to my laptop.
- All writers must be intellectually curious.
Hence Dorothy. She was always trying to get home from Oz, but along the way, she embraced the journey, she embraced her newfound friends, and she was fearless. Or at least hid her fear pretty well. And I see that all as a metaphor for intellectual curiosity.
Breaking out of a rut is one of the best things you can do as a writer. Questioning the world and the people in it . . . being curious about what people do for a living, their motivations, their back stories, all of it can eventually pour into your fiction.
But the other part of it is Dorothy eventually did make it home. The way I see it, that's the grounded part of being a writer, the "know thyself" part. Because you can take all the knowledge and information and emotions that you have culled, but unless you ground it, place it in order, have a firm foundation in craft, and have a decent sense of direction, you're going to get lost in the process and you'll be stuck in Oz forever. While yes, Oz seems to have a nice supply of poppies and the Lollipop Guild, it's not home.
So the lesson I take from Dorothy is follow that Yellow Brick Road, visit all the magical places, but root yourself in the skills you've honed as a writer so it's not one big sloppy mess.
Residents of Oz? Any take on this?
posted by Erica Orloff at 10:53 AM
6 Comments:
Like Dorothy it seems like I'm never going to get to where I'm going. I've been working hard and waiting to hear from an agent. It has been four and a half months, I've emailed him three weeks ago and still nothing. I can't think about writing only hearing from the agent.
Hi Lisa:
Waiting, waiting, waiting. It's the agony of all writers. Even once you get an agent, then it's waiting on editors, then waiting on contracts, then waiting on pub dates, then you do your option proposal--and more waiting.
Obviously, there's a different level of angst once you get a deal or an agent--so I would never compare one to the other, but it is a profession fraught with insecurities and it's easy to get lost in Oz.
E
Great post, Erica. The Yellow Brick Road is a fine metaphor for the plot of a novel--full of pot holes and obstacles but finally leading to the revelation of how to get home. It's a good metaphor for those of us still trying to find the road to publication, too. Sometimes we search for the wizard to magically pop us home, when really we have the way inside us all along. There's really no magic buttons or levers. We just need to wear some holes in those ruby red slippers of ours.
Erica it's like waiting on the government. Hopefully once I get an agent I will be better at the waiting game.
I feel that writing a novel is like follow the leader or being in a maze because my mc has such a powerful personality. You follow the story line and sometimes run into a wall then you have to back track.
Lisa:
I think for non-outliners, like myself, that maze feeling is pretty common. My characters have a lot of freedom.
E
Jude:
Brilliant insight. There really ISN'T a shortcut. If the ruby slippers are that part of us that intuits our fiction and knows the the way, there really isn't some yellow brick road to home. You have to sort of suffer the evil witch, the flying monkeys--and the good parts of Oz, too. But that maze is just what writing is about . . .
E
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