Getting Your Fill

I like high seas drama, and sitting a top my cannon aiming for the next ship that dares to set course into this pirate wench’s path. I don’t enjoy long days at sea, whiling away my time doing menial tasks when I could be pillaging for treasure, and drinking me rum.

If a pirate’s journey only included pillaging, drinking and cavorting with pirates of the opposite sex, we would be so lucky. However, the journey includes much planning to keep the ship set on its course for adventure.

If writing a story included only writing the beginning, the climax, and the end, I would be one happy pirate. We all know that writing requires elements that help the story flow, and polishes the rough edges. The story requires filler, and unfortunately, I’m not talking the white creamy, sweet variety found in the middle of an Oreo cookie. I’m talking about the mortar of the story.

We bridge parts of our story together with information that may not be awe inspiring, but necessary. Heroes and heroines can be charismatic adventure seekers, but in order to keep them real you must give them a background to shadow. Descriptive details can make them appear as three-dimensional individuals instead of paper doll cut outs on a page.

Filler may include non-essential information to the over all plot but it allows the scenes to flow without dead space. It helps build the characters personality or history. It can take something in the story, which appears abstract, and make it an essential element by the end.

Another thing I count as filler is attention to detail in writing, take for example writing a historical romance. It is important to include the proper fashion for the period, and correct landmarks and historical events. Although this information is not detrimental to the overall plot, it is essential in making the story genuine.

Personally, I dislike writing filler. When filler is necessary I find myself becoming distracted, and losing interest in my writing. I try to beef up filler with humor, or something similar to events or conversations from my own life so I can relate to my writing and maintain an edge. However, more often times than not I become bored, and find my mind wondering to the filler of the sugar variety.

How important do you consider filler to the over all story? How do you break up the monotony of writing filler?

The Art of Flow

When the work is flowing, it will feel like a river coursing, a wind blowing, a door opening – with the creator herself having become only a conduit, a tube, a funnel, a hinge. Even if it bears the marks of her own personality, her own time-bound existence on the planet the world’s impetus comes from a mysterious source outside the self.
~Erica Jong~


I can move through life for weeks without one inspiration, then at the very last moment I expect it my muse strikes like lightening. I’m sure you all have experienced the same phenomenon. You’re sitting in a restaurant with your family and unexpectedly, you see a flash of the perfect solution to the scene you have been wrestling in your mind for weeks.

My ultimate high is sitting in front of my computer after a revelation, typing as fast as my fingers can move, as the words flow from my mind to the page. That moment is when it all comes together, when every word that I type seems better than the last.

It’s like magic.

Trying to explain to a non-writer what it is like to create the perfect scene is difficult. It’s why we need to share our experiences in support of our craft.

Athletes get high on physical performance. Pirates get high on the pillage of hidden treasure.*g* Politicians get high on the campaign and the smooze, but writers get high on the articulation of words.

In the operating room when my entire day has been as proficient as clock work the satisfaction is about a job well done, but putting the finishing touch on a story that I have created is so much more. Writing is something that I do solely on my own. I don’t depend on anyone for the equipment to do the job but me.

This brings me back to the subject of my fickle muse.

My muse and I can be either best buds or mortal enemies, but when she really comes through for me, she gives me the best gift of all.

The right words to get the story told.

When your muse checks in after a long dry spell, do you feel the same high?