A few days ago, a good friend said in answer to one of my blog entries:
How is (Sam’s) strength a flaw? To me, her biggest flaw is her need to handle everything on her own. She tries so hard to prevent deep, emotional entanglements in her life, but at the same time, she instinctively creates them.
That was one of the key things I had been trying to verbalize, and this friend (thanks, Lynne) did it eloquently.
Using my newfound skill for extemporaneous writing, tonight I finished a two-page background document outlining my main characters key attributes, including what they drive her to do, and how they work against her. We all live with the push-pull thing. Luckily, we generally don’t experience and feel things to the extreme that fictional characters do. I also reviewed the first 7 chapters and only made notes for a later revision (where before I would have spent my writing time revising.
So today I dove in and swum around looking at the coral and exotic fishlife. And I did it all in two hours.
Go me.
I had a hit on my offer to join me in starting a writer’s group. The husband wasn’t surprised I put it out there. I’ve been talking about starting one up again since we met. There is still room for a couple of more. Let me know if you’re interested.
I have a couple more days of swimming with the fishes, and then I’m heading out to deep water–unexplored, unwritten content and a wild ride on the currents until the novel reaches its conclusion.
So one question remains…
How long can I keep the water/sealife analogies going? I guess you’ll have to come back and see.
Categories: Writing
MOMENT by MOMENT 
Wow — surely you made me sound smarter than I really did on my own — I was reading that and forgetting that I’d said it. At any rate, I’m glad I could help!