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.

Trusting the Process

Yesterday was spent in silence. Silence nurtures my soul and frees my mind from useless clutter. Silence allows me to hear in the depths the Divine Whisper. Sitting in the sun, soaking in the rays, I enjoyed clarity of thought around several writing projects. I was reminded that if I trust the process, the process will be proven trustworthy. I am fairly disciplined about my writing process: the research, thinking and the actual writing. Life gets in the way; I can get anxious. Yet, in the end, the writing project emerges as life intended it. I am experiencing congruency and synchronicity around a fiction/non-fiction project, both on the beguines.

Little Resurrections Everywhere

Ego strength. Trusting my ability to connect with the process and the fodder that feeds the process. Embracing the many expressions of beauty - beautifully crafted words, thought-provoking ideas, sculpture and painting, nature, music, sunrises and sunsets, theater - that nurtures and supports my creative process. Words of encouragement and even words of critique meant to keep me on course. These and more are needed to continue and flourish in such a solitary process.

A fiction project was rejected after initial indications of interest. I ponder if it needs further work or continue to search for a home. I do not take this personally. The novel will find a home if it's meant to be.

I am currently working on a non-fiction project on the beguines, a fascinating and little-known movement of women in medieval and early modern times. Created at the request of a publisher, I delight in the creative process of a sounding board (i.e.: editor) who is as passionate about the subject as I. Due in November for a Fall 2010 publication date.

Hope and creative possibility keeps me going.