She's in the oubliette.

[goblins laugh]

Jareth : Shut up! She should not have gotten as far as the oubliette; she should've given up by now.

Goblin : She'll never give up.

Jareth : Will she? The dwarf's about to lead her back to the beginning. She'll soon give up when she realizes she has to start all over again. Ha ha ha... well? laugh!

[goblins laugh] 

This post is about writing a book, but the metaphor could be used for many things in life.

Images and the above quote are all from Labyrinth (1986)

Writing about writing is something that I love. I’m sure there will be many of these in the time to come.

If I were in a band, my current situation would be know as, The Difficult Second Album syndrome.

At the moment I feel like I’ve been led all the way back to the beginning, just like Sarah in the Labyrinth. I feel like I’ve forgotten, that I’m an author. Just as Sarah forgets why she’s in the Labyrinth.

It’s not the how to write a book, because first drafts are my favourite challenge, but how to edit a book to make it work. To make it into something other people would want to invest their time.

If you’ve been listening to my weekly (on a Friday) audio diary, you’ll know I’m lifting the veil on my process. But I often wonder, what process? What is my process?

I feel like I’m in the oubliette (a type of dungeon FYI) cavelike; chipping away words here, adding some more words there. Cutting, pasting and often deleting.

Leaning into the hermit archetype, I’ve come to understand, is very much part of my process. Gabriella Tavini in Cunning Folk states that “The journey is the transition, a retreat from the world to reflect and learn to connect with our true voice and vision, to return to the outer world with strength and knowledge.”¹

I’m obviously not a complete hermit, because HELLO internet connection and responsibilities outside of writing. But my interior world is brimming much more than my exterior. My mind is constantly stewing on edits, different ways of saying something, characters who are willful and monsters that are hidden. I parse everything I’m digesting from media, nature, bits of conversation, memories that float up, and a song on the radio. It all goes onto my metaphorical compost heap and becomes something else.

I’ve come to understand that for me it’s about leaning into the whole thing. Leaning into the story and the characters. If I’m in the oubliette, then I’m fully in the oubliette and I’m working. Even when progress is slow, it’s still progress.

Frustration is part of the process and to be frustrated is sometimes just what is needed. Being uncomfortable is how newness arrives, how good becomes better. The toil isn’t for nothing. The pain does become pleasure. The finish line does eventually appear. You just have to keep going because tenacity is part of the process too.

I spotted this tweet recently, from Gabino Iglesias (more about him here). It just about sums up the tenacity needed to be a writer.

1. Embracing the Hermit Archetype, Cunning Folk, 2nd April 2020. Trigger warning, this article discusses the pandemic and lockdowns.