Thanks to my new Netflix subscription (squee!!) I finally watched the movie version of THE KITE RUNNER this weekend, and I loved it. I thought everything (i.e., the controversial rape scene) was handled tastefully, the two young actors were fantastic, and the story was absolutely amazing. For the first half of the movie I nearly forgot I was watching a movie set in Afghanistan, which I had always pictured as a bleak, war-torn desert. (That comes in the second half.) So I really appreciated that in addition to a high-quality story, I got a fresh take on a foreign land and culture. Now I’m definitely motivated to read the book, which has been sitting in my “to read” pile for about three years…

Whenever something excites me like this story did, I Google the sh*t out of it. In my attempt to discover how autobiographical the story really is, I came across this interview with THE KITE RUNNER’s author Khaled Hosseini, and I enjoyed much of what he had to say about the writing process. A couple highlights:

For me it always starts from a very personal, intimate place, about human connections, and then expands from there.

Me too. As a reader/viewer, I enjoy all sorts of stories — action, history, romance, scifi — but as a writer, I have a hard time staying focused and finishing unless I care about the characters and their journey. This means I probably won’t write stories quite as action-packed as Tom Clancy’s or Stephen King’s, but hopefully I can find a good middle ground (like J.K. Rowling did with Harry Potter). Or even Khaled Hosseini, in this case.

Often, as I write, stories are transformed, turn into something altogether different, and I am always surprised by where they end up taking me.

Yaaaay, another point for the non-planners!

“Huh, what?”

Allow me to explain.

The outline vs. let-it-flow debate is a fierce one. I see the pros and cons to each side, and I think I’ve ultimately settled upon a good (copout) answer: it depends on the story. Some need very disciplined direction; they won’t work unless you know exactly where you’re going and more or less how you plan to get there. But others would be stunted by that structured of an approach; they would lose their natural ebb and flow, becoming more of a swimming pool than a sea.

Personally I go for an in-between method that I call connecting-the-dots. I plot out certain points and then just try to write a path from one to the next.

For my first manuscript, THE GOOD DAUGHTERS, I started out with no real plan, just a few very spread out dots. (Not so much “A to B” as “A to Y to Q”…) Then when I made it my senior thesis project, I tried to give it some more structure, plan it out a little better. That helped me stay on track for deliverables to my thesis advisor, definitely, but because I’d switched tacks partway through, the novel didn’t cohere very well. Now that I’ve “finished” it, I find myself extremely daunted by the revision because it’s going to be so. much. work!

For my second manuscript, I’m trying to be a little more strategic. I’ve got an “outline” (i.e., significantly more dots than I had for THE GOOD DAUGHTERS) and I think it’s going to work. But ask me again in six months. We’ll see.

ANYWAY, as I was saying, THE KITE RUNNER movie is quite good, and I highly recommend it to anyone who can take a serious — but ultimately uplifting — story.

In his book ‘On Writing,’ Stephen King says:

“It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.”

I mentioned this to Andy tonight, because I find that although I know he will support anything I do for the sake of my writing (go in the bedroom and close the door, skip dinner, punch him in the face, etc.) when it comes to the day-to-day of things, I find it hard to make that sacrifice. I’d rather go out to dinner with him, play with the puppy, or watch ESPN than stare at a computer screen and try to type out something brilliant. Or at least, in that moment I’d rather. Then later when I’m wondering why I haven’t finished my novel or another short story, I feel guilty because I know the time is there, but I choose to spend it other ways.

This is one of many times that I have come to this conclusion. And I’ve tried a lot of solutions to the problem. The best one so far was waking early to write, and allotting a minimum of 1 hour a day to writing (although 2 hours was always better). However, with Riley (the puppy) this is no longer reasonable to ask of myself, so a new solution must be found.

What I’m trying right now (literally, right now) is to go through a normal day without putting pressure on myself to write, and then when we’re showered and Riley’s in his crate and Andy’s falling asleep, I sit and slave over my computer until I can’t keep my eyes open even one more second. (Conveniently my desk is right next to my bed.)

We’ll see how this goes. I’ve given up on trying to keep track of how many minutes/hours I write per day and how many words those minutes/hours produce. I think the record-keeping could be inspiring, but in reality is just a waste of precious minutes/hours. I’ll have to find alternate motivation.

It’s not easy, being an artist. I think a lot of people imagine us as “happy bohemians,” walking around barefoot and carefree in a trance, trying to pluck ideas from our muse like unwanted hairs. But those of us who want to succeed (and are most likely to), we put in the same kind of serious effort and consideration that a good employee will. We “clock in,” we are as productive as we can be, and then we “clock out.” We set goals and deadlines. We strive for improvement. We don’t settle for talent, because we know talent alone won’t get us anywhere. We have to exercise skill and diligence too.

So no, life isn’t a support-system for art. Art, like employment, supports life. (But unlike employment, art often doesn’t pay.) Sometimes that means yes, it will play second fiddle to doing the dishes or attending a gala or spending quality time with loved ones. But at the end of the day, it still has to get done. That’s the part I’m working on now: the end of the day. Literally.