The Audacity to Begin Again

"In every artist there is a touch of audacity without which no talent is conceivable." ~Johann Wolfgang von Goeth

Tomorrow I will begin. I will sit in front of my computer and think of all the blank pages ahead of me. I will invent characters. I will imagine love and despair. I will seek action and listen to see if I can hear my characters talking. I will dance them this way and that and hope beyond hope that I don't have them doing any kind of jigs they absolutely would never do if I wasn't pulling the strings and making them act contrary to their character. I will believe that I have a story to write.

 

"In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write." ~Pearl S. Buck

 

While Pearl Buck published books before I was born, I am old enough to remember the smooth promise of those reams of paper there on your desk. The blankness of the sheets just begging for words to spill across it. Your words. My words. No computers when I began writing, but it wasn't the dark ages. There were typewriters. So my creative process has been attached to a keyboard for a long, long time. But the thought of taking up a pen to write speaks to the urge in every writer to spill stories out on the page.   

 

Chapter One. Two plain words, but two words that are an enticing invitation into a story. Then I will need a great first line. Sometimes on this loop of writers I'm part of, we'll all share the first line of our works in progress. It's fun to see all the different ways we introduce our stories. Of course, I don't have to have the final, revised perfect first line tomorrow. I'm a long way from my story being in front of readers where I need to have such a great first paragraph that a reader will be caught and not want to stop reading until she or he reaches the end. Right now at this beginning stage, I can have any first line as long as it entices me into the story and makes me want to write the next paragraph and then the next.

 

That's the real secret of writing a book. Writing one paragraph, one scene after another. Oh, but what are those scenes going to be? That is the question. That is what will make me stare out my window in front of my desk and not see the birds flying in and out to the birdfeeder, but instead see the story playing out in my imagination.

 

It's hard to write those first words, Chapter One. I never feel ready. I never think I know enough about the history of whatever era I've chosen. I always feel as if I need to find out just a little more about the characters' background.  After all, it's their story. But there comes a time when you just have to start. And so, we'll go on a tour of discovery, the characters and I, and hope we can figure out what happens next.

 

Yes, I do hope I have the audacity to begin again. To write yet one more book. Audacity - some of the synonyms for it are courage, bravery, boldness, nerve, daring. While it's true that perseverance is a very necessary attribute to a writer and talent a good companion to have on the writing road, here at the beginning, with nothing but the blank screen in front of me, audacity is the word I need. The courage to begin. The boldness to believe it possible. The nerve to try to make fiction real. Audacity. I can use a double helping next week.

 

Also, next week, I'm hoping to unveil a new feature here on One Writer's Journal as I get ready for Scent of Lilacs to be back out for readers in March. The Hollyhill Book of the Strange, or should that be the ordinary?

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Blank Pages, Beginnings and Book Launches

Talking to friends - the best part of a booksigning

A new book means I get to celebrate with my reading friends. I started having book launch celebrations here in my hometown when my first inspirational novel, The Scent of Lilacs was published. We had so much fun that I've had a book launch party for every book since. And now it's time to gather with friends for my new book, The Gifted. That will be happening this coming Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Anderson County Public Library - the good Lord willing and the creek doesn't rise. Not much chance of the creek rising as dry as it's been and I'll hope the Lord will smile down on us celebrating a new book. I'll be talking about writing this fifth Shaker novel and hearing what you have to say about The Gifted too. Question and answer time is always my favorite part of any talk.

  
But I know many of you reading friends live a little too far away to drive over (or maybe down or up) to celebrate with me. So I'm celebrating with all of you by having a contest or two where I can give away a few prizes. This pottery pitcher is the third prize in my Celebration giveaway on my website. You can sign up there until midnight EST on July 31 for a chance to win one of three prizes. This pitcher was made by a local artist here in Anderson County. That's fun - to have a local, one of a kind prize. Then there's the Fresh Fiction giveaway too, plus I'll be doing some guest posts on blogs with the chance to win a book. Some reading friends followed me around to those with Words Spoken True, and I appreciated that so much. 

All the celebrating is good, but here at home, I need to be beginning on a new reason to celebrate. It's time for me to pull up the blank page, ask a few "what if" questions and try to launch into a new story with the hope that in a year or so I'll be able to have another party with friends and giveaways to celebrate it. 

Beginnings - in a story that's when anything is possible. A time when a writer can believe this might be the best story yet or a time when a writer might worry that the story magic won't sprinkle over her fingers on the keyboard. After writing dozens of stories, I can summon up confidence that the story will come - most of the time. It always has before, but with each new story, I want it to be better than the last. That's what can be hard. Believing I can write a better story than the ones I've already written. But I will begin again and search out new people who have a new story to tell. I won't let the blank page intimidate me. At least, not too much.

Thanks so much for reading and if you're in the area, I hope you'll come to the Anderson County Public Library Sunday, July 15th, and enjoy celebrating a new book with me.  

Desk Clean - Awaiting the Clutter of a New Story

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk? (Dr. Laurence J. Peter)

I had a goal last weekend of cleaning off my desk. I put it off as long as I could Saturday. Even washed windows instead of tackling the piles of accumulated papers, book catalogs, notes and cards, to do lists, etc. on my desk while I was meeting some writing deadlines the last couple of months. Now I have more deadlines out there whispering "You'd better get started." But I needed to undo some of the clutter first. Give myself a fresh start. 

While I don't pretend to compare my books with Pearl Buck, I do understand where she is in the following quote. 

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write. (Pearl S. Buck)


At a beginning. You can almost see that stack of paper awaiting the stroke of her pen. I understand the ream of paper. I know the feeling 500 fresh sheets of paper used to bring me. So many possibilities as I rolled that first blank sheet into my typewriter. Now I look at the blank computer screen. It doesn't evoke quite the same picture or feeling, but at the same time an almost unlimited space is out there that I can fill up with my stories. 

So I sifted through the piles on my desk and stuffed some things here and others there and found my desk. And my need to begin again. Perhaps my cluttered desk did signal a cluttered mind, but I don't know that I want a "clean" mind. A writer needs some clutter. I may need to push it aside so I can catch a clear vision of my story, but I will have to reach back into that clutter to pull out emotions and experiences and things lurking back there in my subconscious that right now, I have no idea are even there. But I have that "mood of faith and hope" that the right words, the right story will surface once I'm brave enough to type Chapter 1. 


It's a new historical. And so this last quote speaks to me.


The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.  (Ralph Ellison) 


That's what I'm doing now at the beginning. Reaching back into the past. Finding out things. Stirring them into the murky soup of story making and hoping for a boiling plot of true events peopled by my fictional characters.


But whatever I write in the weeks ahead, at least I did meet my goal and find the top of my desk last Saturday. New goal - write! What goals do you set for yourself? And what's your desk look like?


As always, thanks for reading.