A Strange Week

Mysterious swelling in Markus's leg - which is much, much better, but still mind-boggling in origin - and I've been sick. Note to self: going gluten free doesn't mean there aren't still tainted bags of lettuce waiting to strike. I threw down a table spoon of this -

- at my farrier's suggestion, because sometimes other horse people have better answers than human medical professionals. Strangely enough, it helped.

Writing has its own medicinal qualities. My first novel - which will remain in a dark corner of my flash drive until I finally get around to revamping the whole thing - was reactionary. I'd written my whole life, but when I began sketching that story, I was driven by a sense of injustice that influenced every touch of my fingertips against the keyboard. The result? A rather sloppy, underdeveloped finished product.

Between the first and second, I regrouped. I practiced. I rediscovered writing as an art as opposed to an outlet and found myself writing with greater care: taking those mental snapshots and lining them up with a reader's interests in mind.

I'm extremely driven with my current novel too, but this time, it's excitement pushing me. Is it pompous to say that I feel like my two main protagonists are living inside a TV and that I'm watching their lives unfold? That I feel really lucky I stumbled upon the channel airing them and even luckier that they let me document their experiences? Maybe it sounds more crazy, but that's what it's like to write about these people. No frustration, no putting my own BS into a story as a way to vent. No Hollywood action-sequence gimmicks. I care about Tam and Jo and want them to be happy, to take their seperate paths and come to realizations that are completely their own along the way.

There's a lot of not-so-perfect writing out there (have you been to the book store lately?) and I feel like I learn something new with each book, that I refine my process and technique. That I take greater strides toward capturing something worthwhile between the pages. Some stories are vinegar: they don't taste great and kinda make you gag, but you start to feel better after and they help you focus on what you need to be writing instead.