Artisan Soul

[pegkerr]

This coming Tuesday is my sister Betsy's birthday. She shares her birthday with Fiona--she was actually there when Fiona was born. This year it's a milestone birthday for Betsy, so last night my sister Cindy and I took her out for drinks and dessert. For a present, I had gotten one of elisem's lovely necklaces as a birthday gift. She opened the little package and seemed quite pleased with it. Elise had named the necklace "Artisan Soul," and it was a lovely thing, worked with sterling silver and small glittery beads. We talked about what we saw ourselves doing in the next several years, and I felt quite proud of them both as I listened to their plans. Betsy's considering becoming a personal coach, and she's taking the first steps to become certified as a master gardener. "I'm thinking I want to take the time to explore a more creative side," she said, and I felt a little smug at the title of the necklace I had chosen for her. Artisan soul, yep.

Cindy is a buyer for Marshall Fields, but the store may be sold, and she's not sure her job is secure. She's starting a sideline as a freelance photographer and has already gotten some jobs. She also mentioned thinking a little about perhaps becoming a realtor. I think she would be great at it.

Betsy spoke about how her life has been changing, now that her boys (she has four sons, all in their teens) are older. She mentioned that she's read in this LiveJournal how I'm frustrated that the fiction writing isn't coming right now. "But you should give yourself a little slack," she told me. "I understand completely, it's just the stage of life you're at now. But it does get easier, and you will get more time to yourself very soon."

Comments

[madlori.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to comment on your writing difficulties, Peg, but I haven't been able to think of anything insightful to say.

I find that each new project I take on informs me how it wants to be written. Some books I've written have demanded careful, regular toil on a daily basis. Some have wanted to be worked on every few days for longer periods. Fanfic almost always wants daily attention, obsessive outlining and frequent rewrites. The book I'm writing now seems to want to be written in spurts. I'll go a long time (once it was three months) without working on it, but then when I come back to it I'll write a great deal in short order. After those three months, I came back and wrote fifty pages in three days.

My point is that you can't force your creativity to conform to some kind of meaningless external idea of how it ought to be behaving. Creativity is the ultimate rebellion against structure. It's organic, it flows, it waxes and wanes and takes its own sweet time. Maybe your ice palace book only wants you to keep it in your mind for now, and when it's ready to be written, it'll start tapping you on the shoulder and suggesting words and scenes and phrases into your mind.

People think writers sit down and create. But really, it's the work that finds us. It's amazing how little control we actually have over the process. Don't fault yourself. When it's time, it will come.

And now before I lapse into total Yodaspeak, can I ask you if you have a site where all your LotR icons are located? I'd love to gack a few.