PROGRESS REPORT #22: BRIDGING THE GAPS

ALEXANDER AND OLYMPIAS

"Each story will dictate its own rhythms." Jonathan Penner

Here it is three days from the winter solstice, the end of Autumn, and I haven't totally finished my novel, which had been my goal. I am, however, much, much closer to the end and will carry on forging ahead with the hope that it WILL be done in a very short time.

The problem at the moment is 'bridging the gaps' That is...those pesky transitional parts. I have a lot of the story written that I'm threading together and right now I'm puzzling over what to add and what to leave out. I had a lot of ideas written down from long ago but now I'm wondering if it's just too much baggage. Shall I write it in anyway and then edit it out later. Or? I'm trying not to let the internal editor take over because every word is important and I think I'll do what I've done all along...write what seems to want to be written and worry about editing later. It's not that I'm about to go off on any tangents or anything, just that I've been through some heavy scenes and the tension is high at the moment. I don't want to risk losing the tension by adding things that are going to take the story off track. What to do? Hmmm...well, I know it will certainly be figured out very shortly.

It's kind of like being at the cross-roads. Where to go next? Well, here we are at the end of another year and New Years is always a time for new directions. Mine, I hope, will be in the direction of and editor/publisher.

"There's nothing which faintly resembles glamour about the work I do. I spend all of my working hours alone, facing a blank sheet of paper, and myself. For I have to dredge through my soul and my memories every day of my life. Writing novels is the hardest work I've ever done, the salt mines, really. I sit long hours at my desk -- til my neck and shoulders seize up. I make tremendous social and personal sacrifices for my writing, but after all, I chose to be a novelist. Nobody held a gun to my head. So why do I go on? The answer is easy. I can't NOT do it."
Barbara Taylor Bradford

***author's quotes from "The Writer's Handbook."

for a couple of little Christmas Away memoirs, check out my travel blog at:
http://travelthroughhistory.blogspot.com

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!