Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Time to get philosophical on y'all

I will apologize in advance for this post. You can move on if you want to. I am going to talk amongst myself for a minute or so.

I spent a good chunk of my afternoon in a Zen-like state with my chainsaw. We became one with each other. I had time to think about my current WIP and the state of my yard and came to the conclusion that they are linked, in more than one way actually. My WIP is about a boy who goes to work for his Grandpa for a Summer. More specifically he is putting in a fence around the farm. If anyone has done this they know is it hard work. It is even harder when you are only 13. I think it gets more difficult when you hit 36 as well, but that is a story for another day.

the fence is only part of the story. I was looking around my yard and the flooding that is occurring right now. It is different than previous years. The water is running a different way but it is coming from the same places. What has changed? I put a load of rocks (they sprout like weeds every year in my pasture) in a washout that has caused me problems in the past. Not a big deal. It wasn't even that many rocks. Still, it changed the route the water took. Steered it I guess you could say.

Now I bet I have a good chunk of you wondering how rocks and water and fences and a chainsaw have in common. Not a lot, to be honest. I go to thinking about the rocks and how I change little things in my manuscript and the ramifications it has for the entire story. If something happens to this character or this character doesn't experience this how will it change the greater story? I am still thinking about it and the grander picture of it, but I am glad to have these thoughts out in the open.

Sorry to bore everyone with this little monologue. Carry on.

5 comments:

Fox Lee said...

And it think I dread having to weed.

Cate Gardner said...

This part...

"I spent a good chunk of my afternoon in a Zen-like state with my chainsaw."

...left me a little worried. :D

Jamie Eyberg said...

Nat, I was a little worried when it didn't want to start right away. The ax isn't nearly as fast.

Cate- :)

Carrie Harris said...

Actually, that was kind of cool. Next time I get stuck on my book, I'm going outside to cut my grass with a butter knife. It's the closest I come to a chainsaw. :)

Katey said...

I thought that was really cool, in fact. I like when I'm doing things like that which require more of my body than my mind. It kind of lets the mind get free-- or try to make sense of things it normally wouldn't notice.

How can that not be useful, to a writer?