Competing Desires

I stay with a story - be it a novel or a movie - because of intriguing, quirky yet respectable characters. If I frankly don't care what happens to them, I turn the DVD off and pass the novel on to someone else. Diane Chamberlain and Jodi Picoult do this well.

As author Alexandra Sokoloff explains: the inner and outer desires of our main character(s) must be in conflict, and over the course of the story we begin to see their inner desires triumph. And this often comes at a very high personal cost. Dramatize your protagonist's inner desires - paint a series of lovely and excruciating icons as these desires emerge.

Questions

Poet David Whyte captures this so well:

Sometimes

Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest

breathing
like the ones
in the old stories

who could cross
a shimmering bed of dry leaves
without a sound,

you come
to a place
whose only task

is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests

conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.

requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and

to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,

questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,

questions
that have patiently
waited for you,

questions that have no right
to go away.

-- David Whyte
from Everything is Waiting for You
©2007 Many Rivers Press

Structure

I have enjoyed some days of fruitful writing, and rewriting, and rewriting, mixed in with much thought! These have not been days of lots of words, rather shuffling and fine edit, and rewrite and thought. Seasoned, mature writers tell us to write into a preplanned structure - a planning document or outline so that writers "know where they're going." But I find myself giving lots of thought to where I've been (writing wise) and what I'd rather shift around. Dynamism. A keener and brighter horizon. More zest and passion. Hopefully less confusion.

At times, mature writers claim no structure at all. They just let it flow, allowing characters or data define the journey. This sometimes works for me. And sometimes it feels like frustrating chaos, not zany fun. But when I begin with "no structure", sometimes I really enjoy what emerges. I still need to trim and shape, but the unexpected can emerge when freedom reigns.

No matter what, I need the discipline of "showing up". And that is structure too!

Creativity

Balancing structure and creativity. Like doing a two-footed dance: one foot carries the non-traditional, creative, thought-provoking possibilities; the other foot keeps the rhythm of structure in tandem.

Creativity cannot be out-of-control. Effective creativity has a quiet, flexible but definite structure to out. Even our most stunning creative artists today know the internal structure to their artwork. They study the masters first; they internalize the unspoken traditions; and then branch out to new terrain.

Studying the masters is what I've been doing of late. Creativity has been present in my work but it's felt undirected and wandering. Critical eyes that I respect have affirmed this and challenged me. Find my way! Find my voice!

In the Cave of our Hearts

Stumbling about in caves: dark, mysterious, unsafe and sometimes frightening. Stumbling about in caves that hold the potential for rich treasure, unexpected discoveries, and simple adventure. Stumbling about in caves can be humbling, exhausting, and sometimes an apparent waste of time.

My interior world is rich, full of colorful imagination. Stillness and silence speak volumes to me. Vivid characters; zany scenarios; and endless possibilities lurk about. Yet recently I have been struggling to tap into that psychic space where words dance. My writing takes the best of scholarship and seeks expression from the heart and gut. I seek to make sense of the "so what" question. I am struggling to find "that place within" where the words to express what I already know will be released.

Stumbling about in caves. That is what my writing has felt like lately!

Puget Sound Writers Guild

Last night was the weekly gathering of my writers critique group (www.pugetsoundwritersguild.org). We are feisty, committed, opinionated, caring, daring, funny and too often perplexed with our own writing process. But we are honest and supportive of each others' writing process. We hear three presentations - usually scenes, sometimes planning material - and give constructive feedback. This is where the laughter and the bantering erupts.

I presented my crisis summary sheet for a medieval who-dun-it. I had organized a fair amount of detailed material. My group caught a number of details that I need to reconsider and reorganize in order to make this a better-told story. I appreciated the support and feedback. Now is the time for major restructuring, not when most of the novel is written!

Lamentation (the working title for my novel) takes place in 1280 Bruges, a beautiful canal city in present-day Belgium. My sleuth is a beguine, and three innocent souls have died. Or were they so innocent?

Drudgery

I don't like it when writing becomes something akin to 'homework.' Most writers have episodes when we're writing into deadlines or have writerly tasks to perform. Yet I fear something of that drudgery of writing into task...as in, "get this job done so that I can return to my REAL writing." A real killer. And so I am working on my current assignments - book reviews, a nurturing piece for the monastery newsletter - along with research on the beguines attempting to keep it fresh and new. As if I have nothing else to do.