Ossification in Writing

 What do I mean when I say something I’m writing has ossified?  I mean I’ve gotten too ridged in my thinking to be able to work with the material anymore.

There is a tendency for writers to suffer from the Written in Stone Syndrome.  I know I’m not the only one because my professors discussed it.  The Written in Stone Syndrome is the tendency for a writer to think whatever ended up on the page shouldn’t be changed because that’s what was written.  It’s a kind of blind adherence to the story in question.

You know you are suffering from it if you catch yourself responding to a critiquer’s question with “But he had to carry the bat when he walks into the room because that’s the way it is.”

Personally, I think it is loosely related to the tendency for people to think something is true simply because it is in print.  There is something about the written word that carries more weight than the verbal word.  Once you have written the scene with the man walking into a room with a bat, it becomes an integral part of the story.

But it isn’t. 

I can tell you from experience that there is not a single thing in any book that can’t be changed.  Sometimes the change is so radical you might as well start over, but change is still possible with many phrases, characters, and other elements of a book surviving.  Sometimes change does not improve a book, merely makes it different.  Only when the author draws a line does the change stop.

Ossification is drawing the line too soon, and/or adhering to it too ridgedly.  Ossification is refusing to make a change despite the fact the book NEEDS change, and would be a much better book for making the change.  Ossification is the refusal to look at the work in a different light, to see what is actually coming across as opposed to what a writer set out to say.  It’s not a good thing.

Tomorrow: what to do about it.

Alice