Where to now?

You know it is Spring in NE GA when the college girls put on bikinis - pale white skin in contrast to the colorful beach towles spread on the campus amphitheatre stage. The Dogs have claimed the sunny spot on Kailey's Little Tots slide.The crab apple and Bradford Pear trees in our yard are blooming, the Forsythia is a splash of bright yellow and Allegra is back on my shopping list. Spring break is over, my herb garden spot is ready for plants, the hydroponic garden in the kitchen is sprouting up basil, chives, dill and thyme. My back is screaming that I once again, got over zealous and did too much too fast.

Yep, Spring is here.

Over the break I did everything but put words to a paper. I had a 5 day weekend and I kept the grandbaby for 36 hours (quite frankly that was 30 hours too long - I had forgotten how much energy a 2 year old has). The constant prattle was a big surprise " want to watch Barnie", " I want to slide." "Where's the big truck go?" "Where's Danny, Where's Max, I want to see Chipper...", Lordy, she's cute. And lordy I'm exhausted.

As I prepared my things for the the first Monday morning back to work I wondered exactly what I accomplished. Well, the notes from my medicinal herb class are typed, indexed and organized, my herb stock is labled and in Mason jars in the pantry. My house is clean, I read a book and played tourist in ATL one day. So I did do something. Oh yea, spent on full day in my PJs. It's not a break without one of those. :-)

But now that I'm back into the daily grind, kinda disappointed that I didn't actually commit anything to paper over the break, yet I realize that all I did was 'write'...the story was constantly in my head again...while I was pulling weeks, raking, chopping roots, sitting at the park while Kailey moved from the rockie squirrel to the cat to the 'tutle' to the horsey to the squirrel, as I pushed her on the swing, and walked through the Tut exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center. It's like my brain was a dog worrying a bone, a constant gnawing on the characters and the story line.

I was worried that the loud lack of response or comment that anyone had even read the chapters I posted (I know there is a way to check stats to see if anyone reads it but I've yet to find that, to muck like my old work at the online college) was a polite way of saying 'wow, this REALLY sucks, she needs to find another hobby'. But an encouraging post on Facebook yesterday kind of kicked me back into gear.

So it sucks, it's supposed to at this point. It's just the bones of an idea, 300 words I've written to find my characters and start to flesh them out. And I'll admit that flesh is awful thin...skeletal a a concentration camp survivor in fact. So I keep reminding myself it's a process...go with it. This may be the starting point to change the voice, follow the guidelines in writer's digest this month and rewrite a chapter form a new perspective (leave the 1st person voice behind and try an Omnipotent voice 3rd person to show more of the characters etc). So it's time to play again.

I'll plan to post a chapter a week on Sunday for Month of March. That will give me a goal and force me to look at what is written with new eyes. Jump in there, post some critiques (beyond the whole technical grammar thing, I'll hire a copy editor for that) let's focus on the story it's self and building the characters. I won't be offended, I want your help...I've read this so many times I'm tired of it, so feel free to help me give it some new life. See you Sunday, same bat time, same bat channel. Thanks for the prod Renee.