Saturday, September 24, 2011

Reinvention

Hi, peeps! I've got 24 articles to power through this week. I'm also digging into my WIP. Lots of pans on the burner, I hope I don't burn anything. I'm making another painful cut this week in the WIP. I'm not sure that I'm really a reviser but more of a reinventor. I'm writing stories the way I learned to write. Mema would get out a big mess of purple hulls and hand me a colander. I would shell peas and she'd tell stories. The thing about her stories that always stood out to me is they got better over time. This kind of reinvention means that I toss out whole chapters and try to take the story in a whole different direction to make a better story. That's just the way good writing works for me.

This idea of reinvention is a big one for people who write these days. Books are in flux, the whole industry is in flux. We are all in adapt to survive mode. A part of me wishes that I would have born in a time in history when technology wasn't changing so much. But vain wishes aren't a profitable use of time; I have to embrace this: "We have to decide what to do with the time that is given to us," like Gandalf said in Lord of the Rings. Mema was about telling rip-roaring stories. Her stories made me a better person. I hope that my stories do that. That's what I'm doing with my time.

So I work. I open the files every day and I work. I hope you find your purpose and your pursue it with all your heart. See you next week for more reinvention. :)

This is a doodle on the back of a church bulletin. I'm calling it "Parakeet and Girl">


Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
Helen Keller

2 comments:

Janet Lee Carey said...

Yes to reinvention, Molly. It's mostly how I revise, too -- it's all new.

Sending best wishes to you this week.

Janet

Molly/Cece said...

Oh, Janet, so good to hear from you. Thanks for the wishes. I will toss back lucky charms. Hugs.