A Writers Mind

On the long 16 hour drive home from Victoria to Edmonton, I noticed a u-haul trailer left on the side of the road. Now to most people, this would be something to note and then forget, but I will take this example to explain the difference between normal people and writers.

I saw the trailer and immediately asked myself, why would someone leave a trailer on the side of the highway? I saw that the blinking hazard lights were on, and wondering why someone wouldn't be worried about the batteries dying? They must be coming back right away. But why would they leave?

I looked around. The trailer was left at the bottom of a dip in the road. Ahead and behind were hills and a large truck pulling a trailer may have trouble climbing with any speed. So the person probably needed to leave in a hurry. In steps my imagination.

I closed my eyes for a moment and saw a man trying to run from someone and ditched the trailer to get away, but that didn't work with my theory on leaving the lights on, so I scraped it. I then saw a couple, the wife a pregnant woman who had gone into labour early. Yes that worked.

You see in my mind I saw that the man and woman were traveling away from Kamloops, north. They were about twenty minutes away when she went into labour. The man pulled over to the side of the road, and when they realized it would make the best sense to turn around and go back to a Kamloops hospital, the man had lost any momentum needed to climb the hill they just came down. If he wanted to get his wife to the hospital quickly, they would have to ditch the trailer. But my mind wouldn't let it be so easy.

The trailer had to have something important in it. Perhaps they were moving? No, it is was too small of a trailer. Maybe he was selling something? Vegetables? No you would need something with ventilation. It would have to be something stacked. Woodwork? Yes. The man was a master wood carver and inside the trailer was his finest pieces. He was going north to try and sell them. Would he be traveling far north? Yes, perhaps all the way to Jasper where he would have the most luck selling his work for top dollar. His wife was only 8 months pregnant and so they should have been fine for a week in Jasper.

So he must leave his master carvings on the side of the road and travel back to the Kamloops to ensure his wife has a safe delivery. He speeds like a mad man. Half because he wants his wife to be safe within the hospital walls, and half because he wants to get back to the trailer.

They reached the hospital within 20 minutes, and the doctors said that the baby boy was on his way. It would be a fast delivery. Now the man had to make another choice. Go back and get the trailer, or stay and watch the birth of his first born....

D broke into my thoughts and asked me how far away the next town was. I took out the map and told him as if I hadn't just create an impossible story in my mind over the last few minutes. Sometimes I wonder how accurate I am (or not) when I create stories like this.

Sometimes I wonder if writers are sane at all....

A month again?

Wow. I am horrible at posting right now.

We'll it's been a month....

I've written a bit, not a huge amount, but then again work has been stressful... very stressful. But I won't get into it here because I'm still in the middle of it and you never know who might be reading. :)

Word Count Update:
As of May 21 = 10,837 words (my last post)
As of Today = 14, 164 words (not bad)

Needless to say I am SOOOOOO looking forward to my vacation. D and I are going to BC for two weeks of camping. Just to get away from it all. No worries, no yard work, no renovations, no job. Just relaxing and enjoying the great outdoors.

I'm also buying a car plug in for my laptop so I can write on the road.

I leave on Friday, so it'll be a few weeks until I post again. Hopefully by then I can fill you in more on what's been going on.

Til next time.

Tina

I'm Back!

I'm back, safe and sound, and I'm slowly getting back into the groove of things.

It was a wonderful week away from it all. It almost seems like a dream thinking back on it. Was I really there? (yes, and I have the pictures and tan lines to prove it)

I kept a travel log that will need some polishing (what with writing some of it very sleep deprived in an airport at who knows what hour of the day) but I plan on putting in online somewhere with a bunch of my pictures. Maybe in the fun section on my website, I'm not sure yet, but I'll let you know soon.

And thanks "Woman of Words" for the comment on my blog. I knew I had to update it, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. It's funny because I changed my answering machine on my cell phone to let people know that I was away for the week. Well, a bunch of family members called me yesterday and left messages telling me to update my voicemail, because they also knew I was home.

Sigh, I guess it takes a few days to get everything back in order. I haven't even uploaded the pictures from my camera to the computer (its a digital). So as of yet, I have nothing to show for all this disorientation.

I was very jet lagged on Sunday, when I got home. So tired, in fact, that I cried that morning when we had to do laundry (yes, I'm a bit of a cry baby). All I wanted to do was go to bed. To be fair, I HAD been up for well over 24 hours. I took a nap that afternoon for a couple of hours and it seemed to help, but by 7:30pm I was done for the day and off to bed.

It was back to work on Monday. Back to the same old, same old. It's good though. I feel like I've had a good rest and can go for a while. I can tell you right now, I spent most of the trip on the beach, with the ocean lapping not 5 feet from my toes. Sleeping, reading, relaxing. It was awesome.

This whole trip helped a lot in terms of my novel too. While I was down there, I couldn't actually write. My brain wasn't there, but it almost was. It was like I was comparing everything around me to the world I created around Mikayla. How would Mikayla handle this heat? Would Mikayla's people have hats made of palm tree leaves? Would they take naps during the mid-day heat? Would her food taste like this or that? It was just really good to know what it feels like to be in that kind of heat, to swim in the ocean with heavy undertow and feel fish rubbing into your legs. Mostly just what it feels like to live on an island. I couldn't have asked for more, and I had a whole week of it. I'm going to take a few days to get back into real life mode and then it's dive, dive, dive into my writing. I'm looking forward to it. Like a friend you haven't seen in a while and can't wait to go for coffee to catch up.

The very scary thing is I need to really look at my plot. The story is supposed to be about Mikayla. Her journey. Her challenges. It's all about her. I think I've finally separated me from her enough (well as much as one can) so that I can look at her and say "OK, what is YOUR story?" I think she's missing something. She's not doing something she should on this journey of hers. Now I just need to know if it's major or minor. I think it'll be minor, but I want to be sure.

I'm starting this weekend. It's time to take that novel off the shelf and take a good hard look at it. My short story is easy (easier) and so I'll leave it for when I hit a wall, or need a break. Right now, I need to finish my novel. It's funny how something can turn from a want into a need.

I'm glad to be back, as much as it was fun to be away. It's good to be home.

C

Leaving Tomorrow!

I leave tomorrow for Cuba. Well actually, I catch a flight to Toronto, then pop over to Montreal (4 hour stop-over there) and then I leave for Cuba. Should be a very, very long day.

Tonight I'm packing, so I'm pretty sure I'm not going to write anything tonight. Here are the rest of the days from this week:

Monday - 0 words
Tuesday - 0 words
Wednesday - 1114 words on WC&S + a bunch plotting/developing a brand new story outline
Thursday (Today) - 0 words

Tomorrow, well you never know. I will be traveling for 14 hours, I might be able to write a few words down. Then when I get back, I get to make a choice... whether to continue to focus my writing on my short story... or to jump back into my Novel and push full steam ahead!

A difficult choice. My short story is coming along nicely, but I still have close to 10,000 words to go before it's done.... I've already realized that short stories really aren't my thing. I like subplots and developing my characters too much to just write a simple story. My novel needs a lot of work, and it's been sitting on the back burner for a while now, but I really feel it's time to finish it up. Well, I guess you'll find out soon enough.

Tips I heard Today:

1) Always Have A Twist!

2) Try writing without the screen turned on, to let your subconscious write for you.

3) Purple Spotted Pink Stamping Elephants (this is more of a reminder to always have fun with your writing - even if you are writing about serious stuff - and to create an image in your readers mind quickly, using the least amount of words. Of course some will argue that you should never use this many descriptive words in one sentence, but that's another tip completely.)

Have a great week, I will!

C

4 more sleeps...

...til I'm in Cuba baby.

But you don't want to hear about that. You want to know how well I've been doing with my word counts. How close I am to having something published so that you can read it?

Tuesday - 1,000 words (approx) (library day)
Wednesday - 0 words
Thursday - 0 words (was home sick and in bed all day)
Friday - 0 words (again with the "in bed all day" thing)
Saturday - 0 words (ok, I'm getting annoyed here too)
Sunday - 0 words (I was busy getting stuff for my vacation)

OK, so I completely failed in getting a DAILY word count going, but at least I wrote something.

- Sigh -

I have more junk to do tonight, in the aim of getting ready for my trip (I leave Friday). Then there is a birthday dinner on Tuesday, and packing on Thursday.... I am planning on going to the library again on Wednesday, so at least I know I'll get some words in this week.

Hope your having a better week then me. If I don't talk to you before I leave, Have a Great Week, and I talk at you in the second week of May.

C. M. Hunt