“To find a honey tree, first catch a bee….Carry the bee to a nearby open spot—the best an elevated one—release it, and watch where it goes. Keep your eyes on it as long as you can see it, and hie you to that last known place. Wait there until you see another bee; catch it, release it, and watch. Bee after bee will lead toward the honey tree, until you see the final bee enter the tree….So a book leads its writer.”
This metaphor from Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life took me a while to understand. I had to read over it a few times before I figured an interpretation that made sense. I decided that I agreed with Dillard—my interpretation is that a writer must write a bit of the story and stop (release the “bee”) and see where the story is leading. Then the writer can continue on writing the story, and after a bit stop and look where the story is leading. Annie Dillard is suggesting that the book leads its writer, which I kind of agree with—the more into your story you write, the more the story forges a path by itself. As I was writing my story, I was constantly making decisions, and each decision narrowed the possibilities for the next part of the story (like a funnel—I’m not sure if this metaphor makes sense to any of you). I never ever plan my stories out in advance--usually I go with the flow and just see where the story leads. Once the time comes, a natural ending seems to just present itself. Is this the case with you guys? Because a lot of the time, when I plan things out, I end up revising the ending anyways, simply because my story deviated from the original path I had planned out for it.
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