Juggling, juggling…

It feels like it’s been a while since I posted, and it’s because I’ve been busy with writing.

When the writing is going well… the blogging gets sidelined. I guess it’s understandable.

It’s been such an interesting past few weeks.

That it’s been very busy, goes without saying.

And yet I find myself doing a lot of contemplating.

Looking at what really makes a story stand out, what really makes someone sit up and take notice.

More and more I seem attracted to the subtleties.

I think subtly showing a person’s character is so much more effective than blatant stuff.

I decided to write a biography.

Me!

A fiction writer!

But it was just such a compelling story! I couldn’t resist.

It’s basically a real story with a fascinating villain and a story arc. The villain made me so furious! And yet he doesn’t actually do anything ‘wrong’.

Isn’t that weird?

Isn’t that fascinating?

I thought so.

I decided to make it the crux of my story.

And I resisted every temptation to deride him for it.

I thought no, I have to understate it. It’s a much more powerful way to tell the story.

Understate. Let the reader feel the impact of the myriad ways this person is controlling and destroying the life of the other.

I found with all the stuff happening in the media, I’ve been turning more and more to my work. It’s almost a comfort.

You can’t concoct such glaring stupidity in a work of fiction than what is transpiring in real life politics these days.

In fiction, nobody would give someone who’s unethical and incompetent such a high position in government.

After I finished the biography and sent it out to be judged on merit, I pulled out a recent project and found myself really enjoying it!

I was surprised.

Didn’t expect to like it that much.

It didn’t even feel like I’d written it!

And it kept reminding me of what happened to L.M. Montgomery. I heard she’d put some story ideas, written on snippets of paper in a box in the closet, and one day while she was looking for something to write about, she took out the box and saw one of the snippets about a girl who comes by mistake to an old couple on a farm, and she thought something like, “hmm. that looks interesting.” She started writing it and it became Anne.

I’m still waiting for something like that to happen. But I know it’s beyond my control.

All I can do, is write the best I can.

In the meantime, I’m just enjoying the story.

The process.

And trying to make it shine.

It’s not easy.