Lots of Rain

We stayed home for our four day Labor Day weekend, and endured a lot of rain at the wrong time. That is, rain that suddenly deluged right about the time we were getting ready to take Quigley for his walk (on two separate nights) so that we couldn't. Worse, we couldn't put him outside for shrieking either (I can't believe I worried we'd have a hound that made no noise!). Shrieking is what he's taken to doing at night when he wants you to do something (usually you have no idea what) or he wants you to stop doing something he doesn't like (for who knows what reason) -- thinks like cutting out a picture from a piece of paper, shaking water in an empty barbecue sauce bottle, trying to watch the news or working at the computer.

His shrieking is so loud it makes my ears ring. I can't stand it, and Stu doesn't like it much either. So eventually we put him out despite the rain. Then brought him back in... which meant lots of in and out and drying off and washing off of feet.

My son and his girlfriend were also here from San Diego. He stayed with us and she stayed with her grandparents who live here in Tucson. We spent some time with the two of them on Friday night. It was good to see them.

Honestly, I don't know what happened to the last four days, except that today I was really, really tired. That is no doubt partly due to the late hours we were keeping. I guess I did do a lot of stuff, even though it doesn't seem like I did because it was routine stuff or things like fixing breakfast and cleaning it up and washing sheets and cleaning out the office so someone could stay there... the kinds of activities one tends to disregard as anything worth noting or recalling.

I did try to get in some work on Enclave, Ch 7, but beyond noting that the entire existing chapter is totally lame and needs to be completely redone, I made no progress. I did try, but the blankness is upon me again. So I cast that care on the Lord and tried not to think about it, even though part of me is still insisting that it's irresponsible not to think about it and just trust Him to move me to do whatever needs doing at the right time. But since that's the only application that seems reasonable to me right now, I'm going to stick with it. He can surely straighten me out or make up for my misapplication, and that's what I'm going to rest in.

And now I'm going to go stretch and maybe take a bath. I did get most of my Monday chores done, so I won't have to worry about that tomorrow. Whether that means I'll push forward on Enclave remains to be seen.

~~~

Asking How, What and Why

Today was the first day I've had to work solely on the book since last Friday. Hooray!

Yesterday, in the bit of time I did have to work, I went off on a tangent of looking into research institutes because I realized I had no idea what it would be like to work in one. Today, overwhelmed with the amount of research I would need to do to "get it right," I balked at diving in. Everything I seemed to try just led to me needing more information, and then finding more sources of information than I could possibly digest before this book has to be turned in -- let alone written. Maybe I'm writing about the wrong thing. What do I know about research institutes? Obviously far too little...

But then I stopped and realized that while my story is set in a research institute, it's not my intent to write about life in one. I really only need a few salient details. But how do I find in the array of sources facing me just the bits I really need without having to go through them all? I can't possibly know the answer to that question, but God does. Not only that, He knows all about research institutes and what they're like and He can guide me in forming the story now, so that it takes the right shape to mesh with information He will bring me later...

So I might as well relax.

Beyond that, I also realized today that I’d let my focus slip into the wrong place. Once again, I'd gotten all caught up in my need to have pages completed, and scenes formed and set down in a timely manner, when I should be focused on all that I've been given so far. The questions that have arisen over the last few days about the Institute’s layout, its organizational structure, the weaknesses of the original scene in chapter 5, the questions as to what I should replace it with, and what direction I really want to take here... These are good things and remind me of something I read in Orson Scott Card's Character's and Viewpoint:

"... such possibilities only emerge when we demand more from the idea, when we ask more why and what result questions. If you stop with the first acceptable answer, the first 'good enough' version of the story, you lose the chance to move from shallowness to depth, from simplicity to complexity, from a merely fun story to a fun but powerful one."

He was talking specifically of the generation of a short story in a workshop format he calls "A Thousand Ideas in an Hour." I'm a long way from developing the entire story, but I think the same idea applies to the things I am developing. As I ask the questions, or note the things that are emerging as inconsistencies and start to address them, even though it's uncomfortable and unpleasant to see that the work is not as done as I'd believed it was, this process will make it better in the end. Which is exactly what I want.

Peace,
Karen