Some inside information =)

Hello Everyone –

I found these three quotes and wanted to share them with you. They kind of hit home and made me think and wonder a bit. I hope you find them interesting, or at least some sort of window into the crazy thoughts in my head.

What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window. ~Burton Rascoe

So many times I catch myself gazing out our back window that looks out over the intercoastal. Like most people I’m sure – watching the water move helps to relax me. Once that happens then my mind begins to stroll to one of the three stories that I’m writing at the moment. I know, crazy right? Anyway, I’m sure that when David catches me doing this he must think that I’m either whaling mad at him– or lol – Mad Hatter mad. I find it amazing that the little miniseries in my head can turn on and off at any given moment. Helpful I suppose, because for some the writing process it pain staking. For me – I can most times just sit down and start right in where I left off. I’ll color myself lucky and hope that it continues.

The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. ~Agatha Christie

Funny – if you’ve ever read a story or book by Agatha Christie, I’m sure the last place you thought that she was thinking about planning her book was while she was trying to get the burnt lasagna off the side of the pan. But I get her point. When you’re doing every day things is when your best ideas come. At least for me, and once you start to build the characters and get to know them the more you start to plan their lives and their fate. Someone said once – be careful when talking to a writer – you may just end up in one of their stories and then your fate is in their hands. And, what better way to plan that then when you’re elbows deep in dishes.

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke. ~Arthur Polotnik

I sometimes think that, in my head, my life is like a 1970’s love song. Or at least I want it to be. So when I write I want the reader to feel just like that as well. The goals is get them to be able to feel exactly what is going on, how the character feels, what they’re thinking and why they feel the way they do. Even I, find myself getting a little teary eyed at points. That’s when the writing becomes fun. When you, as the writer, start to feel all the emotions that you’re trying to put down on paper. I’ve been lucky, I have some wonderful circumstances in my life to use as examples, both good and bad. The trick for me is to not just make it informational, but to really open up and let you know how I’m feeling as well as the character on the page. Hopefully without making it to mushy =).

So there you have it. As I continue to work on “Waters Edge” – “After The Rain” and “Submission”, wait for “Wild Swan to come out, work a full time job, teach an online writing class, be a good dad and grandfather, as well as being the best partner/husband I can for David, I’ll also do my best to stop for a moment and chat. We should have a soda next time.

Be well,

Christopher