Somewhere between six and nine months into the writing of Irish Firebrands, I began to think, “Am I doing this right?” I had recently begun reading Irish newspapers online, and I ran across two columns written by Dermot Bolger: Getting Down to Writing Business, and Open a Hotel for your Subconscious. This particular passage told me that I was doing it right.

Dermot Bolger (Goodreads)
“Sometimes the less we know about what will happen in a work of fiction, the better off we are. Because the more we know about what happens next, the more we close off the possibilities of the unexpected, the less chance we have of allowing our subconscious minds to speculate and probe down to the awkward truths that we need to express instead of glib things we initially thought we wanted to say.
If we already know what we intend to say, we are going to learn nothing by saying it. Only when we allow our imagination the space to catch us by surprise, when we sit back and stare in bafflement at words that suddenly start appearing on our screens, do we find ourselves to be truly writing. Only then can we honestly say that we are being brought – often by the seat of our pants – on imaginative journeys into the unknown.” ~ Dermot Bolger, Getting Down to Writing Business, August 20, 2009, The Irish Times (online edition)
The Biblical hero David had been sculpted often, by the time Michelangelo applied for the commission to work an enormous block of Carrara marble that had been lying abandoned for 25 of the artist’s 26 years of life.
Trust your artistic instincts. Write.
Thanks for this – encouraging. That balance between planning the story and allowing it to take shape as your write is an uncertain one. I find myself doing both to a greater or lesser degree.
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You’re welcome. I’m glad I found Dermot Bolger, when I needed to know I could trust myself to write. Sometimes it feels a bit scary, to stand in a portal to the Parallel Universe, but we have to keep that door open.
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Wow! What a great message Mr. Bolger has. And what an omen that you found it when you did. 🙂 Thanks for sharing! 😀
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Hi, Rachel! Glad to see you back! Yes, I was very fortunate to discover those columns, and I’m happy I had the presence of mind to save copies – I’ve returned to them many times. I was able to get a couple of Dermot Bolger’s novels through Inter-Library Loan, and when I went to Ireland that December, I read two more that I found on the mantelpiece of the sitting room of the B&B. He’s gone in interesting directions with his writing, and I’ve added two of his books to my library.
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Oh, that’s so interesting! 🙂 I sure wish you could travel back to Ireland. I’d love to go and have you be my tour guide.
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I’d love to go back, but if I ever tried to travel again, I’d need to have a large entourage to winch me into and out of seats, and trundle me and my luggage around in wheelbarrows. 😉
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Ah, well, then we get your sister and mine to go with us. 🙂
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