.....going to the deep end of the pool.....

Katie Waters manages to evoke both a haunting loneliness in her painting (above) and an odd twilight peace.
		...when you know you don't know...
	Safety floats bob along a rope where the shallow end slopes down to the deep. You've stood there, feeling the chlorinated water lap against your chin, and wondered what it would be like to duck under and launch yourself into that well of cool blue. The thought of skimming along the bottom, a trail of glassine bubbles slipping from your lips, is exhilerating. But the rope is coarse under your palm, the July sun blisters your shoulders, and yet another nine-year old is doing a cannonball off the low board. The lifeguard blows his whistle and, pointing at you, yells, "Quit hanging on the rope!" You've never been to the deep end of the pool, and it shows. The fear? That they will have drained it by the time you ever work up the courage to try. Some people come to fiction writing with fully developed ideas: "I have an idea for a story!" They are determined to transcribe their idea, like a hellbent secretary mechanically typing, letter by letter, the dictation she took. For some, it feels safe to have an idea for a story, because if they don't have an idea they might_____________. Or they might___________. And that's a little scary. Some people write to their idea. The idea becomes a paint-by-numbers guide, so to speak, a cheat sheet for when they don't really want to see the actual fruit in the fruit bowl, for instance, and how the light and shadows play across the surface of the fruit. Painting by numbers, they can't go wrong, because 7 is always red, 3 is green and 5 is orange. Safe. But a story is not an idea, as Flannery O'Connor said. It's an experience. In writing one, we're attempting to recreate for the reader an emotional experience. We do this by utilizing the elements of fiction writing: characterization, setting, imagery, dialogue, story events, etc. Moreover, writing is a process of discovery. To discover something is to find what had been there all along, although you didn't know it. In some ways, the idea for the story is the known thing, the premise, if you like, for your even sitting down to write. Keep in mind, however, in that writingisaprocessofdiscovery way, that you've got to get to the Unknown: what you don't know about what you think you know. It's that moment when you duck under the rope, or quit hanging onto the edge of the pool, and allow yourself to drift into the deep. It's the moment you know you don't know. Once there, your idea can't help you. The knowledge that "7 is red" can't help you. You can't any longer touch bottom. This is good. It's just where you need to be--out of your depth. Now fiction writing can begin.
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