For the last few months, I've mainly been working on concepts, plots, characters and general other pieces of books that will manifest themselves in the coming months . . sort of like a squirrel storing up his acorns for the winter so that I have plenty to nibble on in the frozen months where inspiriation is hard to come by unless you allow yourself to listen to the dark whisperings of the west wind, which I grant has it's share of great ideas if you're willing to pay the price that it takes on your soul, but that's a story for another time.
This past week was spent primarily collected scraps on one idea that I'm working on. Feeding all of this nuggets of ideas into my brain until that moment when it all comes together. THAT moment is one of the best feelings there is. It's like one of those paintings you have to squint and let you eyes go out of focus in order to see properly . . once everything is set in the right place, the picture opens up for you.
That's what happened the other day. All the ideas merged and all of the sudden, I could see the story playing out like a movie in my head . . or like dream that I wasn't in but could control. Once I can see it that clearly, writing becomes the simple part. It's becomes a simple matter of transcribing and editing. Work, to be sure. But getting the insight is where the real effort is sometimes.
I thought the above painting by the extremely talented James Jean was fitting. It's called "Crayon Eater" and that kind of how I see the process working. Digesting the pieces so that they come together on the inside.
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