A Rusty Squeezebox

Reach up and take it.  Sometimes writing feels just out of your grasp, currently like my son's Mickey Mouse balloon.  The string is just an inch outside your grasp, even on your tippy toes.  But you try anyway.  Because that is what you want, what your entire being desperately desires.  Life, however, has other things in mind for the time being.

There it sits, waiting like the most loyal of all creatures.  It will be there, exactly as it was left.  The only regret will be time which inevitably takes your memory and carves it into a dull thing that seems shapeless.  Once the opportunity presents itself, we grasp at it and it is ours to carve once more into the sharp and visceral image that we must re-conjure.

It is much easier said than done.

One thing I can say about time and the space between the actual writing.  You can come to know your story in far more sharp detail than you ever thought.  The downfall, inevitably, is the time you take to assess your own ability at it.  And there lies our imperfection and self doubt, and that will be the death of your world if you allow it to be overtaken by such demons.

Here I sit next to my draft, which I have finally finished, by the way.  And here I sit writing on this blog of all places, rather than in my draft.

Why in all that is holy am I writing in here and not there? Have you ever been intimidated by yourself? Have you ever been intimidated by your own creation? This is my battle now.

I let my music box unwind itself and the music has long since played. And now I come back.  My story is sharp in my mind, but the work of the next draft is new territory.  To quote Samwise Gamgee, "If I take one more step, it will be the furthest from home, I've ever been."

I've taken that step, and now I take another and another, and I feel so much further away than before.  I guess I need to remember what Frodo replied, quoting Bilbo, "It's a dangerous road, Frodo, going out your door.  And if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

I guess it's time to wind up my music box and see what plays now and what wondrous things I learn from it.

Adventure is a wondrous world that few are brave enough to experience.

A few good reasons to read. Courtesy of James Howe, an author who has some of the most entertaining reads for littles.