On Writing: Organization

Do you write chronologically? I don’t. Sometimes I wish I could. But you can’t argue when the muse just hands you the middle of an article or story or chapter and it’s up to you to figure out what to do with it.

I once woke up with the entire plot of a book in my head. That was over Thanksgiving weekend back in 2003. It is as vivid now as it was then, but I haven’t put it to paper just yet. I like to think it’s marinating in my brain.

But, I digress.

Every now and then I create an outline.  Sometimes I write the end before the beginning. I used to do the same thing in college. I never wrote introductions first. I wrote the thesis and then I moved forward, and at the end I circled back and did the intro. It just worked better that way.

In my fiction writing, sometimes I create detailed character profiles. My favorite characters aren’t profiled at all.

Do you organize your writing? Or do you let it flow and work with whatever manifests itself?

On Writing: Hold that Thought!

Last night I started writing the intro to the third chapter of my book.  Then I got interrupted and wasn’t able to come back to it.  There was a 50/50 chance, I knew, that I might forget what I was working on.  Fortunately, it seems to have stuck with me.

Don’t you hate it when you have an idea and you can’t write it down, and then you lose it?  I’m serious when I say I’ve probably written dozens of books over the years…in my head.  I have to work on the “writing it down” part.

I actually dreamed the entire plot of a novel back in 2003.  It was Thanksgiving weekend and I woke up with the entire thing in my head, from start to finish.  And oddly enough, I’ve never forgotten the plot.  It’s as fresh today as it was back then.  One of these days I’m going to write it out and publish it.

One of these days….

Living the Life of David Garrett

I’ve been thinking incessantly about seeing violin virtuoso David Garrett perform last Sunday.  His performance blew me away.

He mentioned being on tour 300 days out of the year.  This, he said, made it hard for him to have a relationship.  But he wasn’t bothered by it.  His true love is music, after all, and as long as he’s doing what he loves, he’s happy.

It was such a simple message.  He’s happy with his life.  Watching him perform made me realize what a bond he has with his music.  He plays the violin effortlessly, and his arrangements all reflect his passion. 

I hope that we’re all as lucky as David Garrett, to be able to find the one thing that makes us happiest in life.