It must be spring because I'm seeking out new in my life. In a few days I start teaching piano lessons, I'm hungrier for new books to read than usual, and I'm itching to find an old quirky piece of furniture and paint it an impractical color. I steeped herbal berry tea in lemonade and not only was it beautiful to watch the red swirling down through the yellow, it was delicious. And I started a new novel.
Those first moments are so fresh, creating someone on a page, plopping them into a world and watching how they respond to it, how it soaks in and changes them. How cruel I sometimes feel when I drop them into problems so unfair I don't think I could conquer them myself. But like the tea in the lemonade, everything gets better when it mixes together, changed by the new.
While I search for a home for Time Walker, I feel I'm doing those characters a favor by letting them rest from plots and twists, since they held up so well through that first novel, being changed and deleted, poked and analyzed. Their story is waiting for them, as are a few of you, and it makes me so happy to know you miss them while you wait.
My new victim is Alvey, and by page 8 I already feel terrible for what's happening to her, like I'm not the one who thought it up. But that's the interesting and addicting thing about writing: I don't usually feel like I made up any of it. The story is already there, in some surreal place, waiting, and I want to learn it and tell it,
You really should try it sometime, writing. Even if the character is yourself and the setting is no stranger than your own life, your thoughts are worth writing down. It may surprise you what you discover in your own head, what words come together to shape a story you didn't know you knew, but somehow know how to tell.
In case you don't think you can do it:
. . . everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath
In case you don't feel the need:
If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. ~Toni Morrison
The best reason of all:
The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium. ~Norbet Platt
And a quick tip from a master to get you started:
Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~ Mark Twain
He's right. That was very damn lovely lemonade.
