language and writing

[olmue]

Language is so funny. I notice my kids code-switching to talk about things in the language they happened in. And last week I got up to introduce myself to a group and found I could barely talk. I did a fair amount of public speaking, mostly in German, in the past two years, and don't mind it/kind of enjoy it. But I simply couldn't get English to come out of my mouth! I have no problem one on one, but this was the Wrong Setting for English. I even found myself fighting false cognates, like using "become" to mean "get" (bekommen = to get/receive in German). The brain is a strange thing. I still listen to kids at the park or school pick up line and marvel that they can speak such good English, so young!

And--I've got another idea for another book. Completely unrelated to the others, but it's there. Hm. Hopefully it can wait a couple years, because I've got things in line ahead of it. There's no shortage of book ideas around here--they are floating all around and all I have to do is reach out my hand and pluck one. (Now, if only time worked that way... :). Even working on an existing book (which is work when you get down to it) is interesting--if I'm going to think up what happens and then write it down, I can stare at a blank screen all day. But if I just plunge in and start writing, no matter how stupid it starts, I find things about the character and plot leaking out of my fingers in the very act of writing. (This is why outlining first doesn't happen for me. I have to write, then outline for the revision.) I just found out why my character does a certain thing from doing this random scene writing thing. It's like all these characters are already there, and I just need to carve away the stuff that's hiding them.

Comments

[edawn.livejournal.com]

I have to start carrying a notebook to write down the ideas when they come because if I think of something and then forget it, it drives me crazy to know that there was something.

I did write a page to one thing while I was working on something else and it feels good to know that it is written.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

I have this weird collection of paper scraps that I find whenever I move of ideas I want to some day write. I'm going to have to live a long, long time to cover all of them.

[beckylevine.livejournal.com]

Isn't that "wait two years" thing bizarre. My ideas come much slower than yours, so its never been a problem before. In the last year, though, that's changed, and it's just tough looking at these characters who are asking for time and saying, not yet...not yet...I need to work on the balance.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure there's a direct correlation between how much I have going on and how fast the ideas come. Hopefully I can stock up so that when I have more time, I've got plenty to write about. :)

[robinellen.livejournal.com]

Interesting about the multi-language speakers :)

As for the writing, I've outlined a couple of books (minimally), and those were always the hardest to write. Almost as if, by outlining, I'm forcing the story into a box it might not want...and even though I know that, I managed to outline my latest, and now I'm stalled. Staring, wondering, tapping...and nothing's coming out. *sighs*

[olmue.livejournal.com]

Exactly--it's like I can't get the organic story in my head to match the cut and dried thing on the paper.

[wordsrmylife.livejournal.com]

Language is indeed funny. I think everyone who's been in submerged in another language as you were has been in that situation, but it does feel so weird.

Happy writing. New ideas mean you'll never run out of things to write about.

[kathys-shadow.livejournal.com]

That's a really cool way to think about story ideas--floating around, waiting to be picked. :)