Monday, August 29, 2011

Irene and the Writer

Living in New York City usually has people sighing and wishing they lived here.  I hear that a lot.  Me, I never cared for the city and more so now that Irene plans to whirl in for a visit. However this hurricane reminds me of writing a novel.

How?

The first blow of an idea from the far recesses of our mind collides with another stream of ideas.  That's the first nugget of an idea that as it builds momentum forming characters and plot.  Scenes spiral up, building up the book.  As it nears land, the idea has turned into something bigger with a force all it's own. 
Then it strikes land (or our case a computer) and the actual planting your behind in a chair and writing.  Sometimes, you can blow right over, causing a frenzy and the words falling from your fingertips.  And other times, you're stuck in the same place and being destructive.  The words never come and you're dumping junk on the page. 

Then your path diverts, characters shift the plot or a new conflict pulls in a new direction. So now, the storm of an idea has rebuilt, streamed by these new factors.  Now your keyboard is burning from you slapping down the story. Your family is dealing with less than stellar dinners, the laundry has piled up and the dust bunnies are reproducing with their rabbit speed. So sad about the wake of destruction.

Then comes the end where the storm falls apart breaking into nothing. Now starts the clean up, editing.  You trash the debris, fix the damage and after some time and elbow grease, you have a novel.

So while Irene whips up a frenzy, I plan to be writing and causing some problems for my characters.  I hope everyone stays safe whether Irene is coming your way or not. 



4 comments:

Jill James said...

Hope you stayed safe and dry during the hurricane. The pictures on the news are scary.

Josie said...

Mageela,
Hope that you were OK and not affected much by the hurricane.

I live in SC and we were not affected. However, my sister and Mom in upstate NY had severe flooding.

Denise Pattison said...

I enjoyed New York city the few times I've been there and I sure didn't envy anybody when I heard that Irene was heading your way.

I saw what Hurricane Ike did to Galveston and the surrounding area. The problems, even months later with services.

Some of the insurance adjusters stayed in RVs in the RV park we were in. I realize people do complain about how slow they are to respond but I have to say that those people were up first thing in the morning, out doing what they needed to do. Yet, every night they were up late, sitting at their tables in their RVs pounding away at their laptops.

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