Sometimes creativity is a fickle (tricky) beast

I can't wait to sew this together!

The writing is going well; I had a big day yesterday, another good smattering of words today. The subject matter is tricky, in that I'm dealing with racial issues set in 1971. But there's the love story too, of which I am giving all due respect to the drawing out of a twosome aching to come together. Stark are the repercussions of a split, hard for a child to grasp why someone so beloved wishes to leave. Not to give away too many spoilers, but my duo is in that holding stage, waiting for someone to make the first move.

And sometimes it's not one within the relationship to push things over the edge. Sometimes another character nudges one toward their soulmate. Arranging all these folks to their correct spots is like laying a quilt on the wall. Square by square fabrics are placed, then replaced. By the time I'm a good third of the way along, I start moving down beyond where it's easy to navigate, then I have to rearrange just to make sure rows are lined up properly. Kind of like foreshadowing in a novel, lol.

The quilt above is for one of my granddaughters. I have a stack of squares ready for the sister-quilt, but I'm in no rush. These will be for Christmas, mostly because there's no manner for me to sanely and peacefully finish them by the end of the month, 'nuff said. I don't have a timeline about completing my novel; there's no sane manner for me to wrap it up by 30 November, although yesterday I, um, wrote two chapters. Haven't done that in a long dang time, let me say, but the muse said WRITE and I didn't ask how much.

Being open to one's creative forces is so important, be it in writing or sewing or, well, whatever outlet a person uses to express that inner sense of making something. Not all attempts are successful, in a finished kind of way or in "I really like this!" manner. I don't LOVE all my quilts, but I like most of them and some I wish I could keep, hehehe. As for the noveling.... Many of my initial unpublished drafts are crappy, not merely in the storytelling but the plot itself. Some are great and I wonder if those will ever see life outside of a flash drive. What I've written in the last ten years and have released are.... They are novels I am proud to call mine, hah! Not all were easy, but here I am, still at it. I feel the same with sewing, even if the design is simple patchwork squares. My granddaughters picked out most of the fabrics, and it's my pleasure to sew them together like a snapshot back to this summer when the prints were chosen.

Yet one difference between writing and sewing is that while I decide upon the fabrics and pattern, the plot and characters often tap on my shoulder, asking for their stories to be told. This series is like that, and in the current WIP, folks are turning up suddenly, wanting their moment in the sun. The sun is shining today, but dang it's low in the sky, our treeline obscuring most of the rays. Still I'm happy for the brightness, thrilled by telling yet another collection of tall tales rooted in reality. And while sometimes reality sucks big time, the silver lining remains. Love matters, kindness is imperative. And remembering history is vital to keeping this human race at relative peace with itself and with our planet. Learning from mistakes and not repeating them, whether in creative junctures or on the wider stage, is how we're all going to have a happily ever after.