Why is that picture of my book over over there on the right? Who knows?
Sheesh, it’s already noon!
I woke up this morning with a little piece of The Witch Box in my mind–a really handy little piece that’ll tie a couple of bigger pieces together.
Anyway, I’d better start writing before cold weather stops me.
Oh, gee, now I’ve got two book covers! Maybe I’d better stop before it’s three.
Okay! Grocery shopping’s done, banking’s done. Time to get outside and write like a boat was sinking under me.
I reckon I’ve got two months, at most, to finish writing The Witch Box. It’s not so much fun trying to do that when it’s so cold, the ink won’t flow from the pen; but you can’t go indoors because it’s so blamed hard to concentrate when you’re getting nuisance robo-calls every ten minutes.
Gee–see that pen in the picture? I’ve got one just exactly like it. But you can tell it isn’t me up there because my thrifty soul would violently recoil from wasting so much paper.
I’m not going to stop blogging, but I’ll need your help, O reader, in bringing up interesting topics and starting conversations.
Well, as the feller once said, “Shut up and write!”
As I wait to see whether anyone buys The Wind from Heaven, I’ve finally arrived at that point where it’s do or die, writing The Witch Box.
This book has a double climax; and that means it’ll be very important to get the timing just so. And I’ve got to get to that double climax without padding the story, but without winding up with a book that’s too short.
Plus I’ve got to get it all done before the cold weather sets in and the ink stops flowing in my pen. I have to write these books outdoors. Indoors it’s nothing but nuisance phone calls.
Please pray for me, that the Lord might guide me in the work and make it fruitful in His service–and that I’ll be up to the challenge.
Huzzah. I’ve written Newswithviews and I’m reading another book, for review, that’s giving me the horrors–Hollowed Out, a hard-hitting critique of our “education” system and our rotting culture, recommended by one of my chess buddies. Not that it’s telling me anything I don’t already know: but its very existence is proof that at least some of our intellectuals are waking up to see our problems.
But I’ve got my own book to work on, too, and I’m about to hop into the saddle and type up some more pages of it. The Witch Box is proving itself a challenging book to write. I hope I’m up to it.
Well, talking about it won’t get it done, so off I go. See you again around suppertime–with another critter video as a sanity break.
Work has lately stalled on The Witch Box, mostly because I have a major artistic challenge looming up in front of me and I haven’t been shown the way to the top.
So we watched a movie yesterday, Deja Vu (2006), starring Denzel Washington and Jim Caviezel–and holy cow! Half an hour into it, I realized Denzel was up against the same kind of dangerous problem confronting the characters in my book. Not exactly the same, of course–but Obst and Helki would be a lot better equipped to deal with it if they could see this movie.
Suddenly I was pumped to get back to writing the book. What would medieval people do if they were given powerful, cutting-edge 21st century technology–with no instructions as to how it worked, how to use it, what it could do, what to be careful not to do, and so on?
I don’t want to spoil the movie for you, and I certainly don’t want to spoil the book. This was one of those good movies that the critics didn’t like, possibly because there was a strong Christian slant to it. It’s a thriller that fires up your imagination. And I’d like to achieve the same effect with my book.
Well, I kept asking and asking the Lord to guide me in the writing of this book–and along comes this movie yesterday. Coincidence or Providence?
As far as I’m concerned, that’s an easy one to answer.
These past few days I’ve been stuck for a means to develop the plot of my current book, The Witch Box. I had the climax–two of them, in fact!–but I wasn’t getting there and I feared the story was bogging down. So I re-read the last 50 pages or so, and was greatly reassured by what I found: the story doesn’t suck.
But how to reach those climaxes? I could only read and think and pray over it.
And I think I’ve been shown the way.
This will require some pretty fancy stepping on my part. I run two risks: the book might turn out to be too short, or it might wind up getting padded–mustn’t let that happen!
So I think I’ll resort to a tactic used by both Cervantes and Sir Thomas Malory centuries ago–and pray it works for me.
Back in the saddle on Monday!
There is a lull in the rain. I haven’t been able to walk on my new book, The Witch Box, for several days; but I dassn’t take the manuscript outside until the sky is clear.
What I mean to do is to go outside, set up the folding chair, open the umbrella, light up a cigar…. and think. By which I mean, wait for the Lord to show me where He wants the story to go. I don’t just dope it out myself.
Now people who see me doing this will conclude I’m doing nothing. A lot of writing consists of doing nothing. We don’t consider hard thinking a lazy sort of enterprise, but those who don’t know any better, do. I am at a critical juncture in my plot and I don’t want to make a hash of it.
Well, I’d better get set up before it starts raining again.
An hour later: Ah! That was a productive session. I’ll be ready to write again tomorrow, weather permitting. Thank you, Lord.
Thank heaven for hymn requests and Norbert videos! Because of these, I can keep this blog going even when I’m not quite up to snuff.
My allergies are killing me and I ache all over–in fact, I feel like I just fell down the stairs. I had to go to the supermarket anyway, where I learned from the checkout clerk, and from the woman behind me in line, that there’s a lot of this going around, bad allergies all over–which to me means it’ll pass. “Would you believe I slept for 12 straight hours yesterday?” the clerk said. “Save some of the next batch of sleep for me,” I answered.
So I’m not up to working on my new book, I can’t bring myself to scan the nooze, and I look forward to feeling better tomorrow. I’m changing the title of the book, by the way–the new book is now The Witch Box.
(Oh, fap! I’ve got to write a Newswithviews column tomorrow. If I can! I’d appreciate some prayers on my behalf.)
P.S.–Don’t forget we’ve got a hymn contest going. The more, the merrier.
