Monday, October 31, 2022

Get Doing


The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

                                                                                ~ Walt Disney


I outlined all my novels. It was the only way I could get started. I outlined beginning to end. Every aspect and every plot twist. It was the only way to write that made me feel comfortable. I started doing that in the beginning because, believe it or not, I didn’t write my chapters in Chronological order.

I would write chapter one, then chapter 4, then chapter 12, then chapter 25. It was the weirdest thing. But that is how I wrote my first and second novel. I have a feeling it was because I was writing with three different characters and I could write for one and then continue to write for that character.

But outlining was the way to go for me. The problem was…I would spend hours, days and even weeks outlining the entire novel.

This was all before I began to write a single word toward the actual book.

It was like brainstorming so long that you spent more time talking about the book than you did getting started to write the book.

This November 2022, I am releasing my new book. This book was very different. It had a different theme, it is darker than the other books I have written and it has a holiday surrounding it.  Yet what makes the biggest difference is I didn’t really write an outline for this book.

I started an outline, but never finished it. Halfway through the book, the chapters just started coming to me and I was utterly surprised. This was the first time that I was just able to write and not worry about an outline. It was insane!

My next book, I am not sure if I am going to be able to do that. It was a scary experience but also exhilarating for me. But I know one thing. It felt so good to just do and not spend so much time talking about it or brainstorming about it. 




 

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

The Manic Red Apple

"I have never seen battles quite as terrifyingly beautiful as the ones I fight when my mind splinters and races, to swallow me into my own madness, again."
                                                                                                                      ~Nicole Lyons, Hush


As I work at my desk...

I look at the picture
The red blanket
The red sweater
The hand holding the red apple

The efficiency consumes
The mania rushes though 
It absorbs my soul
Its color is red
Like the apple in the picture
Hanging on my dining room wall

I look at the picture
The red blanket
The red sweater
The hand holding the red apple

The energy can be too much
Bursting through the barrier
I built in my mind
It is a battle fought by the best
Lost by some of the greats
Only the strong mind will survive

I look at the picture
The red blanket
The red sweater
The hand holding the red apple

Knowing there isn't a balance
Just pure unadulterated power
With genius level existence
And a grandiose since of self
Haunted by my lack of resistance
Of my ever shrinking sanity

I look at the picture
The red blanket
The red sweater
The hand holding the red apple

I pray I don't lose myself...


Get Doing

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.                                                                                ...