Drawing from the Well
Queries Sent: 1
Total Queries: 36
Rejections: 23
Scenes Mapped: 1
Total Scenes: 360
It’s not a lot of progress, especially for two days, but it is something. I’ve had stretches of longer than two days where no progress was made so I’ll take this. I did, however, get the idea for how the next chapter will come together as I finished this one with Scene #360. I take that as a win. I just have to make the time to keep writing. I’m looking to tonight. 😀
Filling the Well
Bloodwitch: 47%
The Dream Thieves: 100%! (Book 23 of 25 for #ProjectBookworm2019)
Panacea: 170/383
I finished The Dream Thieves and it was great! I’ve downloaded the next book, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and can’t wait to see what happens there. I’ve started thinking about how everything could weave together in Book Four and it keeps the excitement high for me. Beyond that, I’ve GOT to get some other reading done. I’m hoping I’ll get some in tonight.
Polishing the Well
We went to see Yesterday last night and it was wonderful. It reminded me a lot of Dear Evan Hansen from a very high view but that’s a good thing. I loved it and would absolutely see it again.
Well Chat
Mortar, Pestle, or Meal
One thing I’m running into lately is the feeling of grind. Now, this word has a few different connotations to me, but it still comes down to a lot of work. So how do I overcome the grind and get back to the excitement that makes words fly onto the page?
First of all, “the grind” comes from that feeling of pressure. This is usually pressure you put on yourself, by the way. It’s that feeling of something big and heavy pushing and turning on you as you try to create something. This happens with work. This happens with your home. This happens with family. This happens in creation. It even happens in games.
For me, this word has three connotations for me. The first is from the phrase “back to the grind” as a euphemism for getting back to work. My dad used to say this every Monday morning and it stuck with me. The second was the literal mortar and pestle. When I worked in pharmacy, I used this from time to time to grind pills to create solutions and emulsions for special pharmacy orders. The last connotation for me is in video games where you have an initial surge of progress (the part that gets you addicted to the game) and then the grind that comes after which leads to an EVENTUAL reward, emphasis on eventual there. These three all feed into my concept of “grind.”
Grind isn’t inherently bad, though. I recently listened to a podcast about intrinsic and extrinsic valuation of effort. It was right on the nose of human motivation. Some of us get our sense of worth for effort from the journey (intrinsic) and others get it from the reward at the end of the journey (extrinsic). Again, neither is bad, they’re just different motivations. The key difference here is that the grind IS the journey so longer grinds are more appealing to those who are intrinsically motivated.
Okay. Lots of big words. What does it all mean. It means this: nothing worth having ever came without a grind. You may love the grind or you may hate the grind, but I guarantee that your level of worth in the reward at the end of it is directly tied to how much effort you put into getting it through the grind.
This relates to writing in that there are guaranteed moments of grind. You’re going to grind your face off trying to get to the end of your book. And this grind doesn’t happen just once. Every time you try to do something with your story from front to back, you’re officially in the grind. Plotting, outlining, mapping, drafting, revising, copy editing, line editing, proofreading are ALL grinds. That is both the bad news and the good news because once you accept that, you can get into the thick of the grind and get back to the excitement.
That may not seem to make sense, but it’s true. If you can accept the grind instead of focusing on it, you’ll get to see the beauty within. I’ve heard faith in God compared to a beam of sunlight (I believe it was by C.S. Lewis). When you’re standing outside it, all you can see is the beam but once you stand within it, your vision is no longer blinded but illuminated to all the things the light was trying to show you. This is true of the grind too. When you focus on the fact that you’re grinding through your story, that becomes all you can see but if you will just accept it and step into it, you can start to see the beauty of ideas taking shape.
And that’s where I am now. I’ve been out of the grind long enough that I see it again. I need to accept it and step back into it to find the excitement within.
And write a whole MESS of words.
So are you going to be the mortar, the pestle, or the meal between them today? Are you the grinder, the grindstone, or the grounds? I encourage you to pick the mortar, the grinder, and get to grinding out your dreams.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG