What Will You Create?
I have started writing my novel in earnest. The title so far is “Novel.” That’s the name of the file I am writing it in on my laptop.
Simple.
This is big news for a non-fiction writer, and after 8 books, I am excited by the freedom of fiction to take me into wild flights of fancy for the first time, beyond what non-fiction can provide. I don’t know the storyline of it thus far, but in creating characters, I am learning things about my own thought processes, about what kinds of writing I am drawn to in this new arrangement of words on paper, about my own psychological needs and ways of seeing the world. It is a thrilling process, and I am all in. I am feeling sponge-like, absorbing the world in a new way. A way I recognize and have missed.
What does this look like in practice? I am making time each day to write 1,000 words, and then I stop in the middle of a thought or scene or sentence so a blank page doesn’t face me the next morning, but one I can dive back into, already in progress.
Writing consistently again brings an energy that is intent on noticing. Noticing a news story and filing away some aspect of it for later use or development. Understanding a new angle on a fear or darkness that a character might hold deep inside. My therapist is thrilled.
I am exploring characters. What moves them? What angers them? What are the ways they show up in the world, and how is that different from how they show up when alone? How can I show the reader what I am seeing, what I am finding fascinating, what I am noticing gives me life?
Mostly, I am telling you this to offer this truth: When you are fully engaged in creating something new–knitting, weaving, writing, photography, painting, gardening, raising children–there is an energy that flows through you that enlivens everyday things, so they feel almost electric. I strongly recommend it. What will you create?
