It strikes me as I step away from the keyboard for a few minutes that as different as parts of writing are from parts of quilting, there are similarities. The thing that matters most is the (I hope you won’t be shocked by this): persistence and perseverance.
I really didn’t like what I wrote yesterday. It was a nice chunk of words and didn’t do any harm but it didn’t do anything to advance the story or anything else. I knew that after all the words were counted, it would be the first thing to hit the editing room floor. Bleah.
I wrote a bit at lunch time and picked up the story where I’d left it. That was hard because I didn’t like how it had gotten there. But other than just starting in some random place what were the choices?
Tonight the story just went naturally to a wonderful moment.
When quilting goes bad – colors don’t play out, seams resist, mistakes just multiply, you have to take a breath and see what’s wrong and then get on with it. There’s nothing else to do. Get back in there, rip out what needs ripping out, pick out new fabric, whatever it takes.
OK, break time!
