Today I finished Chapter 1! And that's no April Fool's joke!

I am finding it so interesting to observe the writing process. On the one hand, "I" am doing the writing, but at the same time, "I" am observing what "I" am doing as I write. (I do this same split-brain thing while playing the piano and while riding/working with horses. It's how I learn to improve what I do.) The more I write, the more I learn about different ways to write. I am currently experimenting with the idea of "letting" the story write itself, rather than "making" it happen, which creates pressure/tension.

I have an outline, a rough plan for the plot, for themes I hope will come through. I have characters that I already know pretty well from the previous books (and a new one). I put them in a scene and let them do and say what they will, within the framework I have outlined. Then I watch to see what happens, and write it down. If I am patient and just stand back and look and listen, they come up with the details.

I know I blogged about this some time ago, but today I was reminded of some parallels to what I read in the Bible: "As a writer, I'm kind of playing 'God.' He's got a Big Plan (the plot) and various themes and sub-themes, which will work out the way He has planned, but within that plan, He gives us free will. And everything we choose ends up fitting into His Big Plan! (Unlike me, God doesn't have to wait to find out what His characters will choose to do--He already knows that, as well as the ending.)"

I need to figure out something about my new character (who has not yet appeared): will he be good with horses, or not so good? More a poser? And as I pondered, I heard myself saying to myself, "The reason you don't know is, you haven't seen him ride yet!" So maybe I don't need to figure it out at all--just be patient, wait and watch. I am pretty confident that it will take care of itself. I am learning more and more to not worry, not try too hard, but to trust the writing process, just as in my life I am learning more and more to trust in the Lord with all my heart, not to lean on my OWN understanding, but to acknowledge Him and wait confidently for Him to direct my paths.

I haven’t blogged for awhile. Actually, I took a break from book stuff for a month or so, other than a few phone calls and emails. To tell you the truth, the book was starting to feel like my slave-driver; I felt guilty any time I was not spending my spare time on selling or thinking about the sequel to The Orange Slipknot (my summer project). I had been hitting the marketing aspect pretty hard, so I decided to just relax, do other things in my spare time, and hopefully let all those contacts bear fruit.

I enjoy reading about how the brain works; I recently read something interesting about how to increase your creativity. Work on your project for awhile, then leave it for an hour, or a few days, go do something else. Relax, do something different and enjoyable, don’t think about your project. Meanwhile, your brain will be working on solutions, and next thing you know, ideas will come to you.

My school job will turn to summer vacation in another week, and I plan to spend a good part of my summer working on the sequel. I haven’t worked on it for a few months, devoting my spare time instead to marketing. So I am now rereading what I had written; I will then leave it alone for a few days before starting to work on it. I will trust my brain to be working on it in the background, kind of like my computer is working in the background as I type, updating my anti-virus system. Hopefully when I am ready to bring up that “program” (the sequel), my brain will provide me with the updates it’s been working on. It’s worth a try, and I like this idea better than forcing myself to work on a project so hard that it seems like a chore.

Meanwhile, I have been spending more time seeing grandkids, reading, surfing the Web, playing the piano, visiting with friends on the phone, riding horses, yard work, watching TV (mostly news and horsey stuff), and chatting with my horsey Internet friends. I took a vacation from working on my book so that when my REAL vacation starts, I’ll be ready to get back to work. That’s kind of a paradox, isn’t it?