Let's Talk About Arrangements

Today starts the A to Z blog challenge, and I decided to hop on board. Why? Because I like challenges, and it sounded fun. The word I’m choosing for my A entry is “Arrangement”. Let’s see why.

Arrangement is used in many facets including music, writing, furniture and flowers. The question isn’t whether or not things should be arranged, because they probably should. The question, then, lies in the order. Do we arrange first and then create? Or should we create and then arrange? Well, of course the answer is probably a little of both, but I think that arranging and planning and plotting is grossly overrated sometimes. Since I’m a writer, let’s take the short story into consideration.

Now, if we plan the thing and plot it and scheme it and give it directions and names and places and all that before the story gets written, I believe we risk not writing the story at all. Because it can never be perfect. In fact, perfect is quite simply made of Unobtanium. I know quite a few people, and not just writers, who literally plan their way out of possible good times, simply by trying to get all the details straight before hand. Sometimes, you have to just run with it. It’s called improvising. You ever noticed how truly fun moments are never planned? They can’t be. Plans aren’t fun, that’s why.

So instead, I recommend just throwing it together. And that goes for just about anything from flowers to short stories to adventures. Just wing it. Once the major players are in place the details work themselves out. Trust me on that. Heck, even this blog entry was minimally planned. I knew that the theme was going to be “Arrangement”, and generally where I would go with it, but even now the thing is writing itself. Filling in the details. Becoming. You should try it! Talk about liberating.

So, if you have a short story idea in your head, write the damn thing. Write it, you fool! Write it! You can have a wonderful story down in a few hours, or you can wait weeks or months or years while you plan the thing. And the best part? Even if you spend a year planning a short story, down to the last detail, it still won’t be perfect. Nowhere near. Not even close.

So you literally have nothing to lose. Throw those flowers in the vase and see where they fall. There is nothing to arrange if they aren’t in the vase though. Think about that for a while. In the meantime, I’ll consider loosely what my “B” blog is going to be about. What I won’t do, however, is plan it. Not me. Couldn’t pay me to.