I am having a bit of a dry spell when it comes to creative writing, which is neither unusual or much of a bother.
When the desert decides to take up residence in my head, I sometimes power through and other times I find “less creative” ways to keep writing (like this post). I don’t let it bother me when the ideas go fooom and I am left with a cranium filled mostly with fluff. But I do keep writing when that happens because I invariably discover something I want to write about as I am “just writing”.
I have a vague notion running around in my head, though. Variations on the phrase “Mother Sun, Sister Moonlight” are rattling around my head. “Lady Moon”, “Lady Moonlight” are further variations on the theme, although “Mother Sun” is pretty much settled in my subconscious. I have no real clue what my head is trying to wrap itself around, and I usually try to stay out of the way until it figures it out when these vague notions race around like a kitten with a case of zoomies. You never know where that kitten will end up.
Because there is a new prequel out for the Witcher books, its author, Andrzej Sapkowski has been shoved into the limelight (mostly against his will) and he did a recently Ask Me Anything on Reddit. While many fans might be put out by his cantankerous responses, I found his stubborn refusal to speculate to be refreshing. Unlike many fantasy writers, he doesn’t do worldbuilding without a plot-motivated reason. He doesn’t map out what happens to the characters both before and after, and he doesn’t signal when his character might be unreliable witnesses. So, for many of the fans trying to get the backstory to some of his characters, he simply said, “I don’t know. It wasn’t relevant to the plot and the reader doesn’t need to know that information, so I didn’t develop a character backstory for _____.” It’s an unusual response and you can tell from the comments elsewhere on the internet that folks were a little put out by that kind of answer.
But it makes sense. If something isn’t relevant to the plot, does a writer need to spend the time on an exercise of developing a backstory? As long as you understand the plot-specific motives of the character, you don’t need to know what happened in their years leading up to the plot. It doesn’t necessarily add depth or value.
Because getting caught up in details is one of my prose “blocks”, I really should think harder about his approach towards storytelling and maybe adopt that general thinking when it comes to backstory. If it is not plot-relevant, then skip it. If it seems worth coming back to at a later date, then it can be a new story.
And I particularly liked this response with respect to him having a larger internet presence in the future:
I value my privacy too much to expose it to the vanity fair that is the internet and social media. Which sometimes, excuse me, very much resembles also a carnival of stupidity.
I have grown to appreciate his writing style and personality. Maybe there is a “birds of a feather” element, as I find I am curmudgeonly about some of the same things as he is. But, I grant you, he is not classically charismatic.
But neither am I, as I have discovered over the years. In fact, if it was DnD, I probably only have about 3 points in charisma. Maybe as little as 2 points. Oh well.
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