Plugging onwards...

So yesterday I was in need of some serious writing. Wednesday had been a doctor day, and all the writing I did was more or less editing and restructuring. But Thursday I was ready to plunge on forwards into the tantalizing final third of my book.

I say tantalizing because, really, it's the part I've been writing towards since the beginning. When I wrote out my outline (months and months and months ago) I had put the most detail into what I then thought would be the second half the book. Well, as I wrote things down and realized exactly how much space everything took, it became obvious that this part was going to take longer to reach than I expected.

However, at page 215 or thereabouts I reached the first piece of the extensively plotted section...and zoom da ze zoom. It's flying now.

I'm still surprised that I managed to write 18 pages yesterday. Maybe it was my dedicated mind, maybe it was the knowledge that I was finally getting to the "good stuff", or maybe it was just the coffee (I love the flavor "Irish Cream". It totally rocks). Whatever it was, I got a good portion done. Another hundred pages to go? Maybe. How long will it take me to get it done? Before the end of April, I hope.

And then starts the rewriting.

Reflections

Water is amazing, isn't it? It can take so many forms- rain, streams, lakes, oceans, dew drops on the window...and it can do so many things: give life, take it away, bear ships across its body, provide inspiration for artists, and change the way we see the world.

I took this picture in the little stream that separates our barnyard from our forest. Actually, it's not really a stream. Technically it's a drainage ditch. You wouldn't think that a drainage ditch could produce something so beautiful, could you? And yet if I had just aimed my camera up at the sky, I never would have gotten the same colors, or twists and turns of lines. It is neither sky nor water, but a glorious, magical, mysterious meeting of the two and something else.

Between the Rock and the Hard Place.

I love writing novels. Like everything else in my life, I can't bear to do small projects. They have to be large endevors that will take me days and weeks and months and years to complete.

With writing in particular, I love stringing out a story, getting to know my characters, giving them space to talk - not just about the deeper matters of the universe, but about Star Wars and ice cream too- stringing out a complicated plot, writing detailed descriptions, and using every creative muscle I have to make my reader care about and understand my characters the way I do.

The problem is, there is always a point in writing a novel when I stop, stare at it, and start questioning whether it is really working. This is usually between the half-way and three-quarters point, which I find the hardest part of the book. A significant portion is already written, which means there is a great deal to live up to, stay consistant with, and remember - but the final action of the climax has not yet happened. As an author, I have to keep building towards the climax, but I can't write something that might upstage the climax. It's sort of like being between the proverbial rock and the hard place.

I'm torn between wanting to go back and whip the existing chapters into shape and wanting to press forwards and get the entire first draft completed. And it's hard to know what to do.

So what is my plan of action? (I rather hate those words, now that I come to think of it, but one must plan action if one is to accomplish something)

I believe I'm going to press onwards and get the book written. I may fuss around with my last chapter and rewrite it for the third time- or I may not. I'm at 200 pages now, with a goal of reaching at least 300. I've got to get about two or three more chapters out before I hit the climax. The good thing is that I know exactly what is going to go into those chapters. The climax was the best plotted part of the book. My hope is that once I get these final 100 pages written, it will give me new direction, focus and encouragement to go back and restructure/edit the middle of the book.

Forum Family digital coloring

A piece I did for the Fairy Tale Forum. Click to see full image.

Magnifying God

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,"
~Luke 1:46-47, ESV

"Finally, brothers, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
~Philippians 4:8

I took a walk outside with a friend yesterday and we began to discuss the subject of artistic beauty. It started off as a discussion of colors, but then became an examination of where and how artists can find beauty.

We spoke of Tolkien's explanation of subcreation, and how man (artists) create because we are made in the image of God, and since God is a creator, we cannot help but imitate him by creating things.

And then we talked about beauty. Man cannot create beauty, he can only replicate something that God has already made.

However, I pointed out that sometimes a human work of art can seem even more beautiful than the original. For instance, we were walking around my yard behind my barn. It's spring and it's muddy and the leaves aren't out yet so it's pretty drab. If one was just walking, there wouldn't be much beauty in the sights around us. Yet just the day before, I had taken a camera and managed to find dozens of spots of beauty in the exact same drab places we were walking now.

What an artist really does, we then concluded, is to put a magnifying glass over the beauty that already exists. To draw it into focus, to illuminate it, to magnify God's creation. Whether it is a "Snapshot of random beauty," a painting, a song, or a piece of writing, what an artist does is to draw our attention to and highlight some beauty, truth, or even ugliness of the world.

We do not create these things (although we might create original paintings or clothing or music or stories, they are all based on things that already exist). Yet God gave us eyes, minds and an understanding of his creation so that we might highlight such things. That we might find the beauty in an old chain, the truth in a great tragedy, the ugliness in a life without meaning.

Snapshots of Random Beauty - April 2009 - Black and White

Here is the next installment of my series "Snapshots of Random Beauty" which is my way of finding the beauty in simple things. Something I think we all need to take the time to do more often.

Anyhow, my favorite pictures are the ones that transferred amazingly well into black and white - for some reason there was a lot of dramatic quality around today.

Too Much Snow!

When one wakes up and finds one's backyard completely blanketed with snow, one knows that nature has played the best April Fool's Day joke ever.

We did have some snow yesterday, and last year we were getting flurries up until the middle of April. But it is somewhat shocking to wake up at 8:30 in the morning and find the world completely white.