Milestones

So, I finished my novella on Saturday, April 16.  Now, I need to finish the novel that follows it before I self-publish on Amazon.  Anyone wanting to proofread for me, let me know and I will send you a link.

I had given myself a March deadline, but I missed it.  So now, I have to set myself a deadline to finish the novel. But first, I have to finish the poncho I am crocheting for my sister in law.

It feels good to mark off a milestone.  But there is always an empty feeling that comes after accomplishing a goal.  Especially a goal that is mostly personal.  I still haven't written another word in the novel since finishing the novella, but I did re-read and edit what I have already written.  I can feel the stories coming together inside my head, and I can feel the words preparing themselves to come out, but they are just not ready yet.

I keep thinking of new themes that I want to include in my novels.  I believe fiction is a powerful tool to introduce people to societal problems and potential solutions.

I think that encountering real social issues in a fictional setting and seeing solutions work in a fictional setting helps us to process the world in a less threatening way then encountering social issues in the news or in real life.

Many of us do not know anyone with post traumatic stress disorder, or with prosthetic limbs, or blind, or with criminal records, or who suffer from alcoholism or drug addiction.  This makes people with those conditions a little frightening, because the unknown is always frightening.

But if we can meet and identify with and like characters in stories with those conditions, it makes it easier when meeting real people.   Through our reading, now we "know" someone.  So fiction can also help make it easier to relate to people that we haven't met, because we have met someone like them through fiction.

The biggest surprise for me as I am learning to be an author, is how strong my characters are.  They are very real to me, and refuse to behave in ways that are not comfortable for them.  I find myself having to rework story lines because the characters object to the path I started down.

I also find that it takes tremendous discipline to work on something where the only time pressure is the time pressure you create for yourself.  I always thought of myself as a disciplined individual, I never gave enough credit to the external forces that kept me moving forward on life's paths.

I want my novels to open the people who read them up to more compassion, more understanding, more forgiveness, more generosity.  I don't know that I will do that, but I will try.

I think we can make the world a better place one story at a time.

And those are the stories I am trying to tell.