Cliff Diving

It's been awhile, I know but here's the deal: I've been writing a novel. A real, fiction, murder-type mystery novel. I even have a "contact" on the local police force, and a lawyer friend who helps me with stuff. To be perfectly honest, I started this thing over ten years ago, when I was struck with what would be a scene from the book while visiting a friend from high school. In an instant a character was talking in my head. Nothing new, really--I've got people talking in my head all the time. The difference was, she wouldn't go away.

Before we go on, a disclaimer: I am not insane. Really! I have a therapist, and he assures me I'm not insane. Creative, he says, and "tuned to a different rhythm," (whatever the heck that means), but definitely not insane.

I immediately went home and started writing. Although I knew, even then, that it was a novel-length thing, the idea of writing a novel terrified me. So, I tried really, really hard to squish my voice's story into a short.

It didn't work. I've spent the last eleven years alternately working on it, tearing it up, starting over, etc. etc. all while having babies and trying to manage a household.

Not to mention the whole husband-wife relationship in there.

Turns out, writing a book is haaarrrrdddddd. Especially when I'm supposed to be nurturing and naturing two kids, a husband, three cats, a dog, a gecko and fish, too.

For me, it's what I think jumping off a cliff must be like. My brother sent me photos of him doing this very thing when he was in the Air Force. Of course, there was ocean or a big lake below him, but still. The idea of diving off a cliff, of giving up complete control of your body, of giving over complete faith that you will land safely without crushing your spine or smashing your head on a rock.....for a long time, every time I started this book, I thought of his photos and tried to jump. It didn't work. I just couldn't take that leap, give up control of my life and the lives of those around me, give myself up to a faith that it would all be OK.

That I would be OK. Even if all I did was to prove myself NOT to be a writer, after all.

For the last year, I've been making steady progress, with the help of a good friend who made me give her weekly reports. I missed my first self-imposed deadline, and I will miss my second coming up here in three days. But I'm OK with that. I'm making progress: I have 178 pages and am 200 words short of 100,000. I know what I'm doing--well, more then when I started--and better yet, where I'm going.

Even though I have been writing steadily for a year and four months, it took me an entire year before I actually found the courage and strength to jump off that cliff. But once I did....it is like nothing I have ever experienced, including (shhh) seeing my children for the first time. It's not that I like writing over them. The two cannot be compared. All I know is...if I have the chance, the opportunity to write another novel, whether anyone ever reads that one or this one, I will take it. I can't imagine giving this up anymore then I can imagine giving up my children.

Of course, in the process of taking that leap, chaos has, as I suspected it would, ensued. All for the better, I think (at least, that's what I'm going with).

My children have become remarkably self-sufficient. My son gets most of his own snacks, and usually helps my daughter get hers, during the times I set aside for writing. They have also become used to my "Ummmm.......I forgot to take the dinner out of the freezer. Who's up for Breakfast-for-Dinner/McDonald's/Forage Night?" To their credit, they are good sports and happy to play along, although my son does has started asking me "What's for dinner.....in three days?" to help "remind" me. They have also been good sports about the whole grocery shopping thing, since I often choose not to do it when I can be writing, instead.

My daughter's response to finding out we are out of yogurt again (one of her main food groups) is a cheery, "That's all right, Mommy! We'll get some probably before I'm old."

Probably.....

My husband, also, has been a remarkably good sport, learning the nuances in my voice or facial expressions that tell him I am not in the mood to be a wife--in any way--that evening because
I have words in my head that need to get out.

I figure I must be doing a good job of balancing all that because otherwise he'd be complaining, or having dates with call girls or something. And I'm almost 100% certain he's not.

To be honest, I'm not sure I would care, right now. There was a time when I was driving this project. That time has passed, and this project is driving me.

It's 2:32 a.m. right now. I finished working on the novel half an hour ago. My fingers ache, and my eyes are crusty with sleep-longing. And yet, my brain isn't done. In the background of this blog, it's going on and on about the next step, the next twist and turn....

It might totally suck. I might totally suck. But I'm beyond caring. It's not for anyone else, anymore. I jumped off the cliff awhile ago. I will hit ground by March, if not before. And I'm already planning my next leap.