Yesterday, I wrote about controlling the controllables. That is, don’t fret about those things over which you
have zero control. I listed all the things we have direct control over,
but wanted to expand on one phrase today: “…The prose
of the book itself.”
To be precise, the prose of the book are the actual
words we choose. Yes, I get that and it’s 100% accurate. But how many
of us actually have fun writing our stories? How many of us have a grin
on our faces when we write a certain passage,
or tears streaming down our cheeks, or actual pulse-quickening moments
when our heroes are in peril? Perhaps of all the things over which we
exert control, isn’t this the top?
Why do we write? Well, for some of us, it’s because
we’re not good at anything else. But for many of us, isn’t it the
thrill of the story? Isn’t it to escape?
I’ll tell you a little secret about myself: I
escape in my writing. I have a good life and I’m immeasurably blessed. I
have a day job that takes care of everything, but it would be really
nice to write fiction for a living. I’m not there
yet. Might not ever get there. And while I enjoy writing blurbs and
descriptions, updating and tinkering my websites, blogging, and creating
covers, the real thrill is the story creation itself. It’s the constant
“what happens next?” moments throughout a manuscript
as I’m telling myself the story at 4:30 am each morning. Those are the moments I live for. Those are the moments I have control over.
But you know what? They have control over me, too. I
can feel my fingers speeding up and hear the clickety-clack of the keys
as my heroes get into and out of a problem. It’s my favorite part of
this entire process. Next is me sharing it
with others. And there’s nothing more irritating than my morning
session running out of time before I have to get ready for work and I’m
not at the end of a scene. Most of the time, I don’t have any additional
time that day to keep on with that scene. The
end result is that I’m thinking about the ending of that scene all day
long until I can again put fingers to keyboard and go. On those days,
I’m actually held in a state of suspended animation.
I have a blast telling stories.
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