Enjoying The Scenery

I’m beginning to realise that the Christian writing community here in Australia is very close knit. It’s such an encouragement. People want to help each other and support each other. They’re so passionate about good writing, about promoting books that are amazing,

I never knew this. It’s a lovely, warm thing to discover.

I have been and still am very naïve about Australian Christian writers. I had no idea how extensive the numbers are. I am really excited to be discovering so many things that I never knew before. It’s like I’ve opened a book that I’ve never read and I’m being introduced to a new world.

This photo was taken at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania and an amazing friend of wrote this beautiful comment about the photo. I sums up this journey that I'm on, that everyone is on in different ways.

The picture with you and the boys on this long wooden trail just fit perfectly to what you wrote. You don’t know exactly where the trail leads you to, but someone has prepared it, you trust that person that he’s not leading you into difficulties and you can even enjoy the scenery. Isn’t it what God has prepared for us. And it’s not only the goal that is exciting, but the whole journey he’s leading us!

Killing Off My Darlings

I didn’t know that I would get so incredibly attached to my writing. 

In Jane Austen Regrets, Jane comments how she is worried about sending her books out into public scrutiny because she sees them has her kids. She doesn't want people to dislike them and criticise them. I never really understood what she meant but now I reckon that I’m getting closer to.

I’ve been working on my story for about six months now. I’ve thought a lot about it. Prayed about it. Agonised over wording, scenes, characters and dialogue. I’ve gotten really protective of my story and the characters within it. It feels like they are coming into focus, that they are more than just characters in a story.

I don’t mind people giving me constructive criticism and maybe if someone had said, ‘You need to cut that,’ it would be easier than having to make the decision myself of what needs to be cut. It’s heart rending to delete paragraph after paragraph of words. It’s like they were never there.

But I’ve got to be brave. I’ve got to be willing to sacrifice the mediocre to get to the rich core of what I’m trying to communicate. Hopefully my writing will be all the better for it.

Hopefully it will end up being a beautiful picture, something that people will want to look at again and again. 

The 3am Epiphany

I am beginning to realise that writing takes over my life. I think about my story ALL the time. The other night I was snuggled in bed, it was warm and cosy. Outside it was freezing cold and incredibly dark. My mind was literally buzzing with ideas about how to make my story better. I had the perfect intro epiphany, then my mind started going through all the niggly little bits of the story that I wasn't sure about and tidying them all up.
It was soooo annoying because I couldn't sleep. My mind was alive and my body was saying no, no just stay in bed.
I tried to fight it, I tried to go back to sleep. But everyone knows that perfect ideas that come to you at 3am vanish by morning. So, finally I dragged myself out of bed, put on my slippers, my fuzzy warm bathrobe and trudged down the cold, dark hallway to the living area. I turned on the light getting to my manuscript, I sat down and wrote out all my ideas.
After my brain was drained, I went back to bed and fell asleep. It has happened before that I have felt the need to get out of bed more then once in one night. I should probably have a notebook by my bed but that would mean I would have to turn on a light and thus wake up my husband. So, middle of the night trips down the hall will continue for the foreseeable future.

The Learning Curve

Wow, writing a book is a whole lot more complicated and involved than I ever thought it would be. And there are so many people involved in the process as well!
When I first set out to write my children's book. I thought right, I'll write it, get Matt to read it, someone else will edit it and then bam! It will be finished. (HA)
I have written it, then rewritten it, built on the characters, sent it out to people, got feedback, rewritten, more feedback, more rewriting, printed it out, scribbled all over the print out, reworked it, got more feedback, rewritten again. And I'm still working on it! (Phew!)
But you know what? I am learning so much. This isn't just about writing a book. It's about becoming involved in the whole book world. You can't just be an author on your own anymore. A writer needs a support network. People who are willing to read my work and give me advice. I need to build up a network of people who might want to read my finished work as well. Then there are writers groups and workshops, people who edit my work and proof it for me. It's like a whole community that I've become involved in.
I need to know the book trends. What are people reading right now? Who publishes what? Do I want to self-publish? And are people actually going to want to read what I am writing? Who knows?
But it's good and it's fun and it's exciting.
It's also been a huge learning curve, one that I'm not finished climbing but I'll get there. One day.

Soaking up the Beauty

We went to Cradle Mountain last week, we're in Tasmania at he moment, and it was so gorgeous.  I felt my thirst for beauty being quenched as I soaked up the amazing scenery. 
The drive there was incredible to. First we saw a triple rainbow, I didn't even know they existed.  But there it was, short and very wide. The colours became more intense before it faded away.
We drove through frosted forest sparkling in the sun. The day was picture perfect, sunny and blue skies. Seeing the reflection of Cradle Mountain in Dove lad was so clear and spectcular. The vegetation up there is so different from what I am used to seeing in Australia. 
We went wombat spotting in broad daylight and saw 14. A couple were so close we could have touched them. They were incredibly placid and din't care that we were so near to them. 
After the wombats we went to check out 'Waldheim', the very first guest house to be built in 1921 near Cradle Mountain by an Austrian man and his wife, Gustav and Kate Weindorfer. The couple helped to preserve Cradle Mountain National Park. 'Waldheim' meaning forest home was a lovely wood house that looked like it belonged in Austria. Moss covered trees and an old wooden bride and steps made the place look like it was out of a storybook. 
God must have taken a lot of pleasure in creating Cradle Mountain and it's surrounds. I'm sure He took great pleasure in us enjoying it today as well.

The Brave Thing

One of my favourite movies is 'You've Got Mail.' There is this scene in it that I love. Kathleen has just decided to close her shop and her good friend Birdie says, "Closing the shop is the brave thing to do."
I guess I take this as saying, "Stepping out of your comfort zone is the brave thing to do."
I have always wanted to write. Ever since I was little, telling made up stories to my parents. We'll I'm finally doing the brave thing. This is it.
I'm also realising that if one wants to write, one needs to blog. Social networking is apparently a very important part of being a writer.
And so it begins.
Epiphany: 'You've Got Mail' is a movie about books!