Don't expect anything from anything. Doing so creates a false idea of what something or someone should be, which distorts the true qualities of said person, place, or thing. What an unwieldy practice to constantly expect things, good or bad. Expectations ruin experience. Maybe I'm being pessimistic. Perhaps keeping an open mind at all times would be good enough, I'm not sure.
OK, so here's my thing:
I know two people who read the last page of a book first so they can know if the entire book is worth reading. If you are disgusted, friend, you are not alone. This makes me want to barf. It's like fast-forwarding through movies to see the juicy bits. I was the kind of sick child who would threaten his sister with death if she told him what Mom got him for Christmas. I rather enjoy unopened gifts to this day; oh, the possibilities!
Or maybe you know someone (or ARE someone) who whispers in the theater, "I know what's going to happen, blah blah blah."Well congratulations. Me, I want to be taken for a ride. I'm not looking for the end of the track while it dips and corkscrews and loop-de-loops. Say that one day you met God and he (or she) said, "Ask me a question about anything, and I will tell you the answer." And you think about it for a minute and ask, "When will I die?" I am certain that God, in his (her) infinite wisdom, would kill you on the spot to save you the anticipation.
Life and experience should be about the journey, never the destination. And on that journey if your mind is occupied with what will be or what has happened, then you are missing what is happening RIGHT NOW.
I recently returned from a trip to Albuquerque. I often accompany my wife on her business trips while the kids stay with my mom. Yes, I know I'm a lucky bastard. I didn't have any expectations of Albuquerque because I know better. I researched, yes. I planned, minimally. I packed, accordingly. Like everything, I approached this experience with an open mind. The only thing I kept thinking was Bugs Bunny tunneling endlessly all over America, getting lost, and saying,"I shoulda made a left turn at Albuquerque." We rode horses, drank many a margarita, and watched the watermelon sunset from the crest of the Sandia Mountains. I wrote, drank coffee, wrote, drank coffee, wrote, and drank coffee. I got so hyped up about ABQ I went to Dan's Boots and Saddles for my first pair of cowboy boots. I'm cursing the onset of summer now because if you wear boots with shorts you'll look like a crazy person. Got me a pair of handmade Rod Patricks. W-o-oee. It ended up being a hundred times better than our recent vacation to Disneyland which, admittedly, I thought would be enjoyable. At least the kids had fun, right?
If you never expect anything, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
As crazy as it all sounds, this goes hand-in-hand with writing fiction. Why let the burden of a genre or audience drag down your story? I always hear advice given to writers that say, "You must know who your audience is." I will respectfully disagree with that. I WRIOT. I wriot because I have something to say, not because I think someone wants to hear it. When I wriot I'm not quite sure where the story is going. I let the characters drive my stories, not the plot. I don't know where the story will end. Frankly, it's not my decision. And it could take 100 words or 100,000 to tell it. I have no expectations. I do not desire to figure out how things are going to turn out. They always turn out in the end anyway, don't they?
And finally, my disclaimer: I write unconventional picture books and dark middle-grade to YA novels. I am not an expert on writing, only on wrioting. I have never been published and am currently unrepresented. I don't expect to be published or represented anytime soon, but I don't expect NOT to be either. Wriot on!
The Wrioting Fool
