My first manuscript, White Rose of Promise (WRoP) is away at the Copy Editor, but there seems to be a growing a mountain of tasks to continue with.
One of the first challenges seems to be the contemporary trend to constantly update and improve everything. Last week, I managed to combine text and images on this Blog without too many problems. Today, I come to my page to discover that I am ‘trialling’ new software. It has taken me a few attempts just to work out how to get started (again).
Time to add a peaceful little image here to restore my peace, which is accompanied by some quiet prayer.
but this is the best I can manage )i(
Now that I have had my little panic for the day, I will get to the reason I am writing. I am currently halfway through writing the second book in the series. This one picks up the story of a Secondary Character from the first book and there is some overlap in the timeline. It has been a reasonably easy task to make sure that the concurrent events match up.
But as I already know some of the following unwritten stories will overlap both White Rose of Promise and When Promises Are Broken I begin to see the complicated web I am weaving for myself.
Mixed media, site-specific installation. Photo credit Bookworms To Butterflies.
This immediately reminds me of the artistic process involved in creating my mixed media artwork. For my final Fine Arts university project, I invited participants to make a room weaving installation as the central performance piece. At first, it was easy to see how each of the participants wove their way around the community hall where the performance took place. But after a few hours, the tangle of connections was almost impossible to follow.
Three days later, and the tangled web had become a canopy and the child participants took up habitation for creative play.
In a similar way, my characters are weaving themselves a creative world where their adventures are played out. I started with a simple story, a tale of a lonely woman in search of family and love. As she navigated the challenges before her, she drew other people into her story. Her life became entangled with theirs in such a way that I found myself wanting to give them a story too.
My creative writing time has been devoted to placing the major events from White Rose of Promise into a timeline so that each character, as they come to tell their story, has a connection with all the other characters. This has raised some important questions about how much detail my readers will need in each story about what has happened before.
Another important task in becoming a published writer is to seek out advice from people who have already walked this journey. This includes subscribing to newsletters and following other writers’ Blog posts. I have been praying for specific direction, and this treasure appeared in my inbox this morning.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I pray you will move forward with your own social connections, weaving strength and success as you make your way forward )i( Happy reading (and writing)
Chrissy )i(
