Lines of Hope

Five Sentence Fiction – Changes

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Sybil didn’t know whether she believed in this stuff or not as she walked through the beaded and taking the seat across from the gypsy woman. She squirmed under the scrutiny of the woman’s stare; did she really want to know?

Bracelets jangled as the woman stretched her hand, palm up across the table, motioning Sybil to relinquish her own. The woman ran a jeweled finger across each line in her hand, studying each with an intensity that unnerved Sybil before speaking.

“The things you seek are not to be, but do not be disheartened, change is coming and with it a new beginning worthy of the wait you’ve endured,” she said offering Sybil her first smile and a ray of hope.

Watch Out for Squirrels, It’s That Time of Year

Photo Courtesy of.google and http://blog.drshannonreece.com

 You may have noticed, Cow Pasture Chronicles has a new look. I hope you enjoy the    change. I sat down at my desk on Saturday with a plan to write. First, of course, I needed  to catch up on all the emails I’d missed while at the beach. It’s amazing how fast they can accumulate and overwhelm you, isn’t it?

I opened the cabinet above my desk for an item and froze. I am an admitted organization nerd and a notebook neurotic, but my cabinets looked like organized chaos. The next thing I knew, I had emptied them of all contents and had cleaning supplies in one hand and a sponge in the other. Writing had become a distant, fleeting thought. An occurrence happening all too often these days.

“What in the world are you doing?” My husband asked, wading through the contents I’d spread across the entire kitchen.

Images Courtesy of google and housecleaningbovol.blogspot.com

“Spring cleaning,” I said, my voice muffled from deep inside the cabinet. I cleaned like the Pope was coming to inspect.

“I thought you were going to work on your book?” He is forever nudging, no make that prodding, me to finish my work in progress (WIP).

I pulled my head out and glared. “I was planning to work on my blog, not my book.”

“So what happened?” He pointed to the mess.

I looked around, brushed my hair from my face and sank into the nearest chair. “A squirrel,” I said.

His brow furrowed in confusion and worry. “Squirrels?”

“Yeah,  you know the kind that hijack your thoughts and hide them like nuts for winter storage. I call mine Jennie.”

He shook his head, grabbed a coke from the fridge. “Whatever,” he said as he headed toward the den.

It’s in the genes. Come Spring, I can’t help myself. I grew up with a woman, my mom Jennie, who believed Windex and newspapers, floor wax, cleaning supplies and rags came out the same time  with the flowers and pollen every year. She’d wake us on a Saturday morning, bright and early, hand us rags and our marching orders and Spring cleaning would commence.

We washed windows, stripped the hardwood floors, applied new wax, scrubbed base-boards, and grout in the bathroom tile (with a toothbrush). We washed and spruced everything in the house and when it when done, we opened the sparkling new windows to let the fresh new air flow into our lungs. We inhaled that fresh air like a dying man sucking on his oxygen tube.

It may sound harsh, but with five girls we got to where we could knock the list out in a day ( I have no memory of my brother with a rag in his hand) and I am a hell of a housekeeper.

It took me all day (not as fast as I once was) to finish reorganizing. Exhausted, I pulled off my rubber gloves and resumed reading emails. Where I promptly opened this article from The Daily Post,  “Spring cleaning: Reorganizing Your Blog.  Well…what can I say. The squirrel was loose.

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Helpful How-to’s or a Reason to Procrastinate?

As writers, we often find ourselves collecting as many “how-to” articles and books on writing we can digest, and then some. My library is overflowing. Space won’t allow me to name them all, but  Hooked,  Structuring Your Novel, and Write that Book Already!  are a few  of my favorites.

 

Some of the books in my library I  reference on a regular basis, The Emotion Thesaurus is one.

However, when we collect how-to-books to the point learning our craft becomes  a distraction or another reason to procrastinate from completing your our own work in progress (WIP), we’ve stopped learning.

If you’ve ever done any of the following, you may be  how-to obsessed, or second guessing your ability as a writer.

Have you ever:

  • Red-inked a story, chapter or novel based on a particular books recommendations.
  • Re-written a story, or chapter based on a books recommendations.
  • Started your novel over completely.
  • Attempted to be a plotter when you’re a panster at heart.
  • Or, used tools that don’t fit your personality because they were recommended.

As a result, your WIP sits unfinished on your desk  which leads to frustration and more procrastination.

Stop it.

I’ve loved self-help books, on any topic, for as long as I can remember. And my kids will tell you receiving  my favorites as a gift are as inevitable as Christmas Day. But, quitting something has never been an option for me. It isn’t who I am. So it’s time for me to close the how-to’s, clean out my mail box and open my Scrivener file. 

In 1908, John D. Swain novelist and screenwriter wrote a letter to his son who was beginning his student life at Yale. Here is what he told his son about quitting.

“…Finally, if you make any of the teams, never quit. That is all the secret of success. Never quit! Quitting, I like to believe, has not been a striking characteristic of our family, and it is not tolerated in our college.
If you can’t win the scholarship, fight it out to the end of the examination.
If you can’t win your race, at least finish—somewhere.
If your boat can’t win, at least keep pulling on your oar, even if your eye glazes and the taste of blood comes into your throat with every heave.
If you cannot make your five yards in football, keep bucking the line—never let up—if you can’t see, or hear, keep plugging ahead! Never quit! If you forget all else I have said, remember these two words, through all your life…”
(Source: The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood; Image: Yale football team, 1908, courtesy of Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University.)

The past couple of  years has given me any number of reasons to procrastinate, reevaluate my life, priorities and even put writing on the back burner permanently, but I’ve never been a quitter. All of the how-to-books I have are excellent resources. I’ll use them when necessary but for now, I’ll sit my butt down and write.

Dinner on Demand

Photo courtesy of Pinterest

Photo courtesy of Pinterest

Sybil placed the dinner plates on the table and prepared his coffee the way he liked it, with a shot of bourbon.

 The king of the house, as he called himself, demanded a three-course meal, on the table at six sharp, bourbon coffee, and total silence for the first hour.

 She mixed the crushed tablets into his potatoes, covered them in gravy, and stirred an extra helping into his coffee.

 She helped him to the sofa when he complained, tidied the kitchen, washed the dishes, and waited.

When daylight returned the king was dead, Sybil free and the silence, golden.

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week#172  prompt this week:  …when the daylight returned the king was dead…