I’m at the start of a new book (#tinyboxes). The muddling beginning when I’m still not sure what I am doing.
I have to remind myself that I know how to do this- HOW TO write a book.
I also have to remind myself that writing each book has been a different experience. But that each book teaches me a little more about how to write a book.
It never gets easier but there’s always something amazing that is learned just through the process of getting the words down, and figuring out which order works the best.
It’s a time of exploration, driven by curiosity (what is going to happen?) and the unexpected (whoa, even though I outlined a good portion of this book I never saw that coming!), and a certain measure of stubbornness (I have done it before I will do it again even if it seems as if I have forgotten everything about this thing they call writing).
There is no right way or wrong way to write a book. There is your way which is the way that works best for you.
So even though, at the moment I feel like I am flailing I also know that if I stick with it, worry at it a little and take lots of walks, turn it over in my hands seeking the best angle, the way will eventually become clear.
Everything I experience in my day to day life will be filtered through this lens of new book, new characters, new situations and new outcomes. Everything (I mean everything) will have something to do with this book and will enrich and deepen it, and the experience of writing it.
That is where the line between living life and trying to encapsulate it in words becomes blurred. Life equals art equals life.