Go Around The Rocks (© 2017, F. P. Dorchak)
I borrowed this phrase from the Seth material, written by Jane Roberts and Rob Butts, and it is one of my favorite Life Quotes. I use it a lot. And I’ve got to follow it myself, now…not that I never have. Obviously, at my age, I’ve been around quite a few rocks, indeed. But I’ve not-so-tritely mentioned it to others who were having difficulty of one kind or another. If you’re having issues with something, try to go around the difficulties, you know, if possible. Follow Life’s river waters around the rocks, instead of focusing on the rocks themselves. It doesn’t mean to ignore your problems, but more that you don’t overly focus on the problems in your life. I feel it’s a good motto to live by, and have applied it to my life in many situations, as I’m sure we all have. It’s nothing new, really, just a cool phrase.
But I bring it up because I’m working on my newest novel, which I’ll call “NOL,” and I’m in a bit of a jam. My latest completed manuscript, call that one “APOS,” with my agent, is also at a traditional publishing house awaiting review and comment, was—and most surprisingly so—not a hard write! It came out rather easy, as most of my novels have. I did NOL a tad differently. I wrote up a synopsis “first.” “First,” in that I’d actually already started NOL before APOS, back in 2018. APOS went easily, structured vignettes throughout the novel. For NOL, I’d written about 43K words when APOS really grabbed my attention and I decided to run with it, instead. It was such a fun write.
Once APOS was turned in I went back into NOL. A month ago, I had an idea: why not write up a synopsis to give my agent for when asked what I’m working on now. So, I wrote one up for NOL. We all know that doing such things means the actually written book may change from the expected synopsis, but that’s okay. But now, as I dig into NOL, I’m finding myself severely bogged down in the opening pages (don’t say it, writers, don’t even think it…)! These pages are critical to the rest of the story. I know where I want it to go, but I just don’t seem to be able to put down what I want in the way that I want. Now, in my above parenthetical that means that perhaps I don’t need to start at the beginning, and, in fact, begin the novel “later” in the pages I have, and that is a legit argument, however, the content in those initial pages is what I need somewhere in that book. Yes, well aware of this. But whether in the first pages or later, I still need that material. I’ve been trying to muscle through it, but it’s just not working.
Then yesterday I decided to write up the ending. And I did.
This is me going around the rocks: I’m having issues on one part of the novel, so I’m working on another part of it, instead. I love the ending, it’s not expected—even by me! It’s such a cool ending.
After shoveling snow this afternoon, I sat outside to enjoy the still falling flurries, and let my mind drift, and thought, heck, why not just move on from those first pages even more. Just go to the next chapter and get going. I can always come back. And while thinking about that I came up with another cool scene to incorporate into the novel, as well, one that also further advances the story. I can’t wait to get back in there and start writing that up, so I guess I better get going….
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