Double the Instagrams, double the fun!
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Good day to you! Last Friday my eldest son gave a presentation at school, so I went to that instead of blogging. I thought I'd just blog on Monday. GUESS HOW THAT WORKED OUT.
Last week, I did some good work on the story I'm writing. I had the realization that, for once, I had started it at a point too far into the story, and it could use a new beginning that would show the inciting incident. Usually it's far too easy to start a story too early in the character's timeline, which can slow down the pace by including unnecessary information. I felt good about figuring that out, but I still didn't know the ending.
I'm about to do something that's a bit uncomfortable for me, but I've been inspired by Austin Kleon's awesome book, Show Your Work!, so this is his fault. I decided to figure out the ending of my story by writing a sonnet, because I love writing them--they're like making up your own puzzle and solving it as you go along--and I thought it would trick my subconscious mind into revealing a solution for me, which it did. The uncomfortable part is that I don't tend to post this sort of stuff, because it's not finished, it's more like poetic notes, but I'm going to take Kleon's advice and post that sonnet.
*
A young child weeping helpless on the ground,
And half-hid under bushes, turned away,
Reveals a secret, once she has been found,
Her eyes a mix of power and decay.
A kindness met with slash of sudden claw--
A fever builds, unconsciousness, abyss--
Awake anew and see with horrid awe
The world beneath the surface is amiss.
So enter, now, the traveling milieu
Where poison--posed as healing--fakers give,
Then thread the maze, a pathway shown to few,
And heal the sickness, only then to live.
The wound received has turned into a gift,
The wicked ones returned back through the rift.
*
This is not a sonnet that tells a story clearly by itself, but it's like a message from my subconscious mind to me. A few of the lines came out as complete surprises that showed me exactly what to do in the story, and now I know my ending. I still have to write it all out, but I do much better with that part once I have an outline, no matter what form the outline takes.
My projects:
Writing: I've written over 3,000 words on the story, and I would like to finish a rough draft of about 6,000 words total by the end of next week.
Reading:
- Ruby and the Stone Age Diet, by Martin Millar
- Craft, Inc., by Meg Mateo Ilasco
- Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation, by Bill Nye
January's Other Project: My new office. I've moved furniture around and hung an organizer thingy on the wall--it's a chalkboard on one half, and has wire mesh to clip things on with mini clothespins on the other half. I have yet to assemble my new desk, office chair, and small set of shelves, but there's not much procrastination between me and those tasks!
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