AUTHOR MUSINGS
Some words of wisdom
Catching Stories 23rd Aug 2020
I saw a beautiful dreamcatcher in a local shop and knew it was destined to hang in the writing hut I didn’t have. Buying it was a promise to writer me that one day I’d have a dedicated space for all my writing notebooks, a space to enable me to focus all my energy on writing and nothing else.
I hung it in my lounge and looked at it every day, imagining it hung in my dream space.
That first dream has been realised and it now hangs in my writing hut window.
I decided as stories are like daydreams this would be my storycatcher.
I love the way the stars look like flowers cradled in the arms of the moon. It reminds me to be kind to writer me, to understand and forgive those times when writing does not flow, when all seems too much and too difficult.
I imagine the moon and stars catching tiny molecules of idea dust and sending them into the hanging crystal until they form the seed of a story. Then they are released to roll around in my imagination and gather snippets of my experiences, in the same way a snowball rolls and gathers unique flakes.
New Paragraph
The blues and greens of the hanging fronds are the quiet I experience in every cell when I swim beneath the surface of a lake. The stillness of my mind where ideas sleep.
The beads I add for visual motivation.
A reminder of what I have achieved, am achieving, and will achieve.
The natural wood beads are story buds, ideas jotted down in notebooks, gathering thoughts as a flower seed gathers strength, waiting to blossom. They whisper in my subconscious and tickle the edges of my mind.
The purple beads are completed first drafts, noisier than the wooden beads, they shimmer for my attention, and jostle for next place. They are my daydreams and night musings.
The orange beads are hungry for my time, they are the stories being rewritten, edited, polished as near to perfection as I can with my present knowledge and experience. They eat the hours and exhaust my patience, but I love to see them grow into their potential.
I’m sure you’ve guessed what the gloriously gold beads are.
They are my published stories. Each one representing both eBook and paperback of the same title.
They shine bright, fighting back the shadows of doubt that creep into my mind.
They are my stories. sent out into the wild forests of the book world. Their quest is to find their rightful place in the hands and minds of readers.
I am proud of them.
I glance up to my left as the storycatcher turns in the slight breeze. I imagine what it will look like when the oranges turn to gold, the purples take their place, new stories emerge from their wooden shells to become first drafts, and more story seeds fall from the moon to be caught in the cool waters below.
I do not know who designed or made this beautiful piece of artwork that inspires me, but I thank them for their skill and time.
Copyright © 2020 Jenni Clarke Author. All Rights Reserved