A Contest

I discovered something this morning. If you try to take a picture of a computer screen with a digital camera you get “flicker” effect…which is why I had to take 300 photographs in order to get one where the message actually appears on the screen.

A Contest! Yes! Actually it’s 2 contests.

1. Guess My Dog’s Name

2. Best Name for My Dog that isn’t really her name.

The prize is a TJ book. One winner per contest. If there is more than one correct answer, I’ll get my dog to help me make a random selection.

I’ve been trying to start a new novel. Not successful yet. Gaaaa. The scary part is that if I think about it consciously, I come to the conclusion that it’s impossible to write a story. How can you write the beginning when you don’t know what the middle is going to be? But how can you write the middle without knowing how it all starts? And what about characters….don’t you have to know who they are before you can make stuff happen to them? But how can you make stuff happen to them if you don’t know who they are?

I have to keep reminding myself that I CAN do it. I’ve done it many times. Stories build bit by bit, at least that’s how it goes for me. Write a bit. Plan a bit. Think a bit. And then do the same thing over and over. I CAN do it. But at this point it feels like an absurd leap of faith.

Below is a page from a notebook about half way through TJ and the Quiz Kids when some parts had fallen into place but other things made no sense at all. It’s got some very definite planning….numbered chapters and all. But along the side are notes and doodles …the thinking and writing because all the planning in the world still can’t make a story come alive, it takes the actual words to do that.

Next Blog for me is Thursday Nov. 15. Send dog names by posting messages below or e-mail hjhutch@telusplanet.net .

Thanks for checking in!

Hazel