Baby Steps: An Update

Well, the first week of baby steps went well. I wrote some. I mostly did research. And I have a lot of that to do. So far it's been really helpful as far as starting to put some flesh on my ideas. I realize now that I am nowhere near ready to write much of this story. I will probably write scenes here and there that will get chucked eventually, but they're worth writing now for the discipline of it and for the potential discoveries.

The second week hasn't been so great. Too many work deadlines, which means too many excuses. But this week I should be back on track. Should be.

I used to hate to write. I hated it until I took a mandatory half-semester writing class in college that changed my life. So weird how that can happen. The class (and my lovely and wonderful professor, Dr. Martindale) opened my eyes to the idea that writing well is like putting a puzzle together, and that is what most intrigues me about it. I am not the most creative person. Many people think I am, but I'm not. I enjoy the creativity of others. And I seem to make my living off of others' creativity as well. I guess the reason I'm a good editor is that I can look at all your puzzle pieces and see that you haven't put the picture together in quite the right way. I fix it, and the picture is clear. So I'm an editor because I like the challenge of a puzzle. But writing is like putting together a puzzle too, especially non-fiction. Putting the pieces together and presenting it in a compelling way. But fiction -- well, you have to create the pieces and then put them together. For me, the intimidation factor is huge. And then there's the work of it, as Carolyn mentioned. It's sheer drudgery in a lot of ways.

But research is fun. I love to learn new things and the days that I take my baby steps, things are much more exciting and interesting in my brain. I definitely prefer to contemplate the motivations of my protagonist's father than to contemplate what to make for dinner. I really hate dinner, at least the fact that everyone needs to eat it every night.