Turkey and Cranberry Sauce and Dressing, Oh My!

I hope that you had the most joyous of Thanksgivings, and I'm wishing you a magical Christmas season!

I was fortunate to go "home" for Thanksgiving, back to the family farm in Georgia.  It's the place where I derive the most inspiration for my work, and I had a lovely marathon writing session curled under a blanket on the back porch, laptop in hand, gazing across the backyard with its ponds and on to the river beyond.  The sound of the river is invigorating, and the sounds of the birds reminds me that there are lives going on all around me, lives I tend to dismiss.

I also read a little Annie Dillard while I was home, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek".  It was as if she'd written it there on that farm, and her awe at nature was mirrored in my own.

Perhaps the highlight of my holiday was taking my three year old son on a walk around the farm.  We made our first stop at the garage so he could climb on every tractor, and then he picked up a broom, took it outside, and tried to sweep the leaves.  He's a tidy little guy.  Afterwards we walked to the river, and the look on his face was priceless: eyes wide, mouth agape; he couldn't believe the sights and sounds of the rapids. We walked along the river looking at deer prints in the dirt and collecting feathers.  He found a hawk feather which was definitely the discovery of treasure for him.
Come to think of it, we were both like treasure hunters in search of fortune, and I think we both found it.

It's easy to get caught up in the day to day hustle and bustle of life, of work, of the holidays.  My trip home reminded me that creation and inspiration fully arrive when we take ourselves out of society for a bit so we can breathe deeply, move slowly, and simply be amongst the rest of creation.  This holiday season, I hope you're able to make time to step outside of necessity for a spell.  I know that it is in those moments that you will find the treasure of inspiration, a treasure you may not have even known you were seeking.

Sometimes it's Too Much

What I wrote today was difficult to relive.
Oftentimes I write from my life experience, and life is not always fulfilling.
I think that's why so many broken people are writers.

But then again, aren't we all broken in some way?

Five years ago, I lost my grandfather.  It was a difficult four months as he was dying, a difficult four months filled with hurtful revelations, broken promises, unrealistic expectations, unbearable pressure, and unanswered questions.  It was a time when everything I thought I knew about a man who had been such a central part of my life was proven to be a lie.  Everything.

I've been waiting for the right time to write about it, and early on I realized that there would never be a "right time".  There would be a "right project".

There's something Faulknerian about my experience losing this man who had been my hero and my father, something about seeing clearly for the first time that he was someone I never really knew.  And when I stood in that booth at the country fair, holding the photographs that sparked this project, I knew that this was the time. 

Reliance is the project.

I've been so excited to begin this manuscript; the words have been saturating my mind for weeks.  But if I'm being honest, I've also been wary, because I knew that this day of writing would come.

We didn't have a funeral for my grandfather.  Truth be told, if we had, the funeral should have been held weeks before he died in body, for that was long after he died to me.

But perhaps it's more fitting that in memorial I bury him in these pages, in these words I've put to paper today.  His life was fiction, and so there he shall remain.

Sometimes writing is too difficult.
Sometimes it's too much.

NaNoWriMo is Underway!

Greetings from my kitchen, where I am finally putting the finishing touches on getting the kids to bed, preparing lunches for tomorrow, baking my granola for this week's breakfast, and medicating my sore throat.  And now there is finally time to write!

NaNoWriMo began this week on November 1, and no, you're not too late to give it a shot!  I am at 15% of my goal, which isn't too shabby, and frankly I'm amazed at the time I found (*made) this week to write.  On Wednesday I went to the public library and banged out a couple of thousand words...this novel has been building up inside of me for a couple of weeks now...on Thursday I wrote at home at the kitchen table, and on Friday I treated myself to a yummy crepe and wrote at my favorite local coffee shop.  Whether you like coffee or not, I must recommend your local coffee shop as a haven for inspiration.  There's something about being in a space where something else is being created, where conversations surround you and people are gently sipping their comfort.  And it smells pretty great too!

I'm working on my novel, tentatively titled Reliance, and I'm realizing that this is the second manuscript where I've worked with a very different process than usual.  I've been on a hunt for narrative voices.  My friend and fellow writer, Jennie, always says to "steal what you like" from other writers.  So I'm stealing a little Faulkner on this one.  In the vein of  As I Lay Dying (a masterpiece of narrative voice), I'm using multiple narrators to tell the story.  The trick here is to get the story out and, in the process, to find their voices.  Last week I was drumming along with my main character's daughter's voice as she described the situation surrounding her father's death.  Suddenly she received a letter...and the next thing I knew, Daisy Prater had entered my life, and the story, and she was rambling on and on about quite shocking things!  I love these moments when a voice forces its way in and hijacks the story. 

And so I'm letting the story flow.  It's all out of order right now, but the pieces are coming to me that way.  Time will tell if they get resorted in the manuscript or if a little time-jumping (not unlike the works of my muse, Faulkner) is the best way to convey the meaning.

What I know for sure is that this story is coming organically.  And that's a good thing.  Nay, it is a great thing!

Happy writing!