Good and Mixed

[cedar_grove]

erverFrom The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.

Plans are useless, but planning is invaluable.
--Winston Churchill

Plans are kindling to every fire, and no two fires are the same. We just need their heat and light.

Saturday – special day of course, the Breeder's cup; doubly special as I got to read the story I'd been waiting for (well, one of them anyway :) ). And I was very happy to find that the Breeder's cup website was broadcasting a live streaming feed. Between that and sharing the TV with Mir, it was wonderful to be able to see the horses, pick out the ones… all very good.

For the most part it was a great and wonderful day – if not relaxing, certainly a lot of fun, (at times it was so tense my little heart was pounding in my chest). Only toward the end of the day did I get to feeling a little harried… over plans and changes to plans.

I'll be the first to admit, when I'm writing something, although I have a plan and an outline, while writing and learning the characters and the nuances of the story, those plans and outlines change. They're still there as a guide, a push in the right direction, but for the most part they guide the integrity of the story and all the characters within that story. I found myself at odds with something that didn't happen that way today – and starting to question my involvement in a joint venture – as much as I've been enjoying it… as much as it's helped to get me back into the mood for writing lots of things and spreading my wings.

Then there's Use'ara… and the plan to write it for NaNo. Mostly that's turning out well, though it's harder than I thought and I'm only just hitting my daily word count most days. I have a treatment written for it. But already, three chapters into the novel, and 6 days into NaNoWriMo, I'm already off plan – but… that doesn't matter, because the kindling caught, and the fire is burning – and as tricky as this is, I'm feeling it shaping under my fingers… where before it felt like chipping away unyielding granite with my bare hands.

Comments

[mirrani.livejournal.com]

This is why I can't follow a timeline or script or outline for a story. I just can't do it. I know where it starts, sometimes, on rare occasions, I understand where I'd like it to end... but I always start at the beginning and just walk my way through. How else is it going to be like life? I don't wake up today with an outline of my life for the rest of the year. Sure, Thanksgiving comes, then Christmas. Yeah. Dates, not life. I can't say that Thanksgiving will he hell and Christmas will be in Cairo. I don't know until it happens. Why should I put my characters through that and push them into something unnatural just to get them through a point I'd written in the plot line? I /have/ to let it flow. I don't have a choice. I can't treat "my people" any other way... I can't treat my /mind/ any other way. It can't handle connect the plots. Connect the dots, just fine... Love that one. But connect the plots? Forget it.