There was a spark inside of you to write your story, whether nonfiction or fiction. It feels mysterious and numinous, like it dropped down from heaven, and now it burns within you. It may be an image, a what-if scenario, an event, or a mashup of ideas from your favorite stories. Whatever it is, it is the spark that gets you excited to write.
What I want you to do is hold onto that spark—that Core. Keep that Core in front of you at all times as you work on your story.
I’ve read too many works where the author got carried away and forgot their Core, and their work is a jumbled mess because of it—unfocused, unfiltered, no direction or point. They can’t pinpoint why it’s not working. But it’s because they threw in the kitchen sink but didn’t have a clear vision for what belongs in their story and what doesn’t belong.
Or there is no deep, resonant heart behind the work. They lost the spark in the mess.
Or worse, they lose motivation and never finish because they forgot the spark that got them excited in the first place in the process of writing.
When you’re working on sentence 2332 in draft 2, it’s easy to forget that spark. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds. But you always need that big perspective. You need to keep that Core in front of your mind and turn it over in your hands as it were, examining it like a multi-faceted gem.
Always come back to your Core. Always give yourself that perspective. Always remind yourself why you’re writing this story. That is what will get you through the finish line and be the connecting thread that holds the story together.
If you keep coming back to the Core, you will create something that is of whole cloth. Something that resonates and is united from end to end.
It turns out that you can get a lot of useful information for your project out of that little Core. It’s like a seed that bears the promise of the whole tree that it will one day become. In our Principles of Story Workshop, where we work with authors in their stories-in-progress, we examine your Core and its facets, and draw out from it tons of valuable tools to make your unique story work the way it wants to work, the way it needs to work. Like archaeologists discerning a whole way of life from a shard of broken pottery, we can work with you to draw your story out from your Core to build out your whole work.
Just remember it as you go through each writing session. Remember your Core. Remember that spark. And let it guide you.
Bon courage!
JACK CLARIE is lead editor at Verse & Vine and the writer of mythopoeic fantasy and poetry. He lives on the Gulf Coast US with his wife and two children. He is currently working on his début novel, a faerie tale.