The Journey Is Everything: It Never Sounds As Good As It Is Or Can Be (Tip #23)

When I was young and had an amazing story to relay to my parents or my friends, I'd stumble and fumble with the words. The story I told never--and I mean never--turned out to be as good as it was when I saw it happening.

I realized early on that I wasn't the best verbal storyteller. Perhaps that's why I sought to try and tell them in the confines of the written word.

As I've grown older, I've seen the same thing happen as I'm trying to detail a story idea I have. The story never sounds as amazing as it is in my head. Even if I articulate my ideas perfectly (which never happens), I never get the desired result. Of course, I'm not sure what my desired result is. Tears in the eyes? Fear and trembling? Laughter and shouts of "your brilliant!" I don't know.

But how many times have you shared a story idea with someone and seen that look in their eyes? The distant, don't-give-a-rip look. The look that seems to ask Is That All??

Over the years I've learned to temper my verbal storytelling. I've learned to try and curb the answer to the inevitable question "What are you working on?". Because my answer is usually too long and too boring and doesn't justify the story I want to tell. I've learned to say less. One day, I tell myself, they might be able to read the story instead of listening to me yammer on about it.

But excitement can still get the best of me. And today I found myself talking a little too much about a story I'm working on to my agent. Somewhere in the span of the ten minutes I was talking, I knew I'd lost her. I couldn't see that look because we were talking on the phone, but I just knew. I felt it. She was polite and even when I apologized for going on and on (like all of us writers find ourselves doing), she said that it sounded good.

But I knew it sounded rather silly. Most stories sound silly if told in a certain way. Sure, if told with conviction and clarity by certain individuals, they might sound incredible. If President Obama had shared the same idea, the masses would be moved. But coming out of my mouth, it all sounded rather . . . well, rather lame.

Yet I know the idea isn't lame. It's a great idea. But sometimes it's best to write that idea and do what they tell us authors to do--show and not tell.

So tip number 23 is this: be careful about talking about an idea or a work-in-progress. Because even those you love might not be enthralled or impressed. And that can discourage you. It's discouraged me in the past. Right now I'm simply used to it. And everybody who knows me is used to hearing about one of ten thousand ideas. I'm not the boy who cried wolf. I've turned into the wolf.

Rather than crying wolf, I want to eventually produce the wolf in front of them. Then they can decide if the story is any good or not. But I'll have done my work and the story can speak for itself.