A Novel Idea

Porsepine by Dante Gabriel Rosetti

I've been turning that short story I posted this week into the beginnings of a novel. Writing has always been my guilty pleasure. It is, of all the things I do creatively, the most effortless. I've wanted to write a novel for years, but nothing seemed to stick. I'm impatient, have I mentioned that? An opening sentence has been nagging me for over a year, but I had no idea where it was leading, so I let it simmer.

Then that short story made it clear. I began to think about the story line and just started writing. A title popped into my head and I poked around to find it hadn't been used yet, which is good. The title led to some interesting ideas. Then I did a little research and came up with a way to tie the title and the story line into real history (with artistic license of course) and suddenly everything started to connect! It's funny how things unfold like that.

It's when we stop forcing things to happen on our terms and in our timeline and we allow them to bloom when they are ready, that everything supports them with total serendipity. I am a control freak, so it's hard for me sometimes to let go and trust that things are happening, even when I can't see them. My husband compared my career to a kind of Bamboo that spends years growing roots until finally it is ready and it shoots forth with amazing amounts of growth. I think that's the way of an eclectic creative type. I always have a series of ideas working simultaneously.

I don't know where this will lead. Some of my big ideas have hit some pretty big potholes this week. My initial impetus when I hit a series of potholes in a short period of time is to crawl under the covers and have a good cry. Maybe I let myself do that for a half an hour or so...then I buck up and refocus.

There is no failure except the failure to attempt, eventually the right idea will meet the right time and series of events and it will unfold with total serendipity. We must keep attempting until that happens.

I'll keep you posted...this idea is going to take time and patience...which will be good discipline for impatient and impetous me.