Getting from A to B is hard, but Aha! moments make it all worthwhile

Writing is hard. Sitting down and staring at the screen and not knowing how to get from point A to B to C is frustrating, and that's when I know what points A,B and C are!

But it's the how-to-get-there that is truly the hardest part of writing. It's the daily grind part, the what else can I find to do so I don't have to write a page of how to get from A to B and then realize its crap and delete it all. It's the staring at the screen for a half hour without typing a single word because I really DO NOT know how to get from one plot point to another.

This past week for instance I have been trying to write a single chapter in which a major plot element happens and really pushes the story forward. But I've been struggling with it because although I know the main gist of it -- my main character talks to someone and learns some very interesting information -- I don't actually know how that plays out. And its very frustrating.

But I keep going back to the computer and if I can get 300 usable words out of an hour's work I'm happy.

Getting from plot point to plot point is the bulk of the work of a writer's job, at least its the bulk of work for this writer. So I suppose in some ways it's also the most fulfilling. When I've finally finished writing a chapter that I'd had no idea how I was going to write (other than the main plot element) I do feel like I've accomplished something major and I always pat myself on the back.

But it's not those moments that make writing fun. What's fun are the Aha! moments. The moments when I'm driving, or washing the dishes or talking to a friend and suddenly it hits me. "This" has to happen in the book. "This" explains perfectly why so-and-so feels a certain why. "This" is the perfect location for the scene where...

It's those moments of revelation that will enrich my story and make it better that make writing so fun. It's when the story takes on a life of its own, and I can't tell it what to do anymore (at least not on the larger scale) and instead the story tells me what will work and what won't.

It's funny because I've read about these Aha! moments before, when I first started seriously contemplating writing a mystery and read some books about writing. Every author talked about how the story unfolded as they wrote and often went in different directions than expected. But somehow I never thought it applied to me. I had already outlined my idea. I thought I had all the main elements figured out. But low and behold after maybe a month or two of writing, ideas began popping up all the time. Each one was a revelation, a mini-epiphany. Each one gave me renewed energy and spurred me on to write more, get through the daily grind.

Now that I'm more than half way through my Aha! moments have slowed. I really do have all the main elements figured out. I mostly get smaller revelations at this point. Little aha! moments that help me with the daily grind, with getting from point to point with the least amount of wrestling with the scene to get it to do What I Want.

But I've still got one big Aha! moment coming. I still don't know quite how the final confrontation between Abi, my main character, and the "bad guy" is going to go. So I'm eagerly waiting for the story to reveal that to me in a blinding moment of Aha!

Until then, I'll keep putting one word after the other, slowly inching forward, moving from Point A to B to C and hoping for lots of little aha! moments and one big Aha!

Need hope?

I was going to try to blog a little today about either my writing process or about the type of murder mystery I'm writing but then I came across an item in one of my Google alert e-mails this morning that really caught my attention. The keyword on the alert is "cruise" and so there was a link to an entry on a Web site about a couple whose boss paid for a cruise for them.

How nice, I thought, I'd like to read that. It's always nice to read about when nice things happen to people. Especially, as we mostly hear about all the bad stuff that happens to people. I followed the link and landed on GivesMeHope.com. At first I was thinking, oh god, another religious Web site with people finding hope in god, but it wasn't. Instead it was a site for people who found hope in other people.

I quickly went from just reading the one entry that had gotten me there to scrolling through all the entries, and getting a little teary-eyed at some of them.

GivesMeHope.com is a site that allows people to post their own personal stories about experiences they've had that have given them back hope. Some are a bit far out and have to do with "miracles," and some seem more based on hearsay and urban myth. But most are about people being good and kind and wonderful to other people. The kind of stories we need more of. The kind of stories that inspire us to be better people.

Here's one such story that I read on the site:

My youngest brother died unexpectedly while I was studying abroad. A cab driver found me crying alone in a phone booth after midnight. He offered me help and a cup of tea, arranged a 73+ kilometer cab ride for me so I could make my morning flight home. I never even learned his name.

But before you think this stuff only happens to other people, or hardly ever, or maybe the stories aren't even true. Let me tell you about my own experience with someone who gave me hope.

On the way back from a work trip, I had to fly through Miami airport. When I got there in early evening I found out my flight to Newark had been canceled and I was being rerouted to JFK airport. I had several hours to wait and had not eaten since early afternoon. I was tired and annoyed at American Airlines; I had not had a good business trip and had gotten some news that morning that had upset me.

I went to the terminal where my flight was departing from and went to get some food at one of the food stands. I had no cash because ATMs in the place I'd been for the business trip had been few and far between and I had never found one. Nor did there seem to be one inside the terminal. When I tried to use my credit card I was told the stand only took cash. So I tried another place, only cash. At this point I was practically shaking from hunger and emotional exhaustion.

I finally figured I'd go into the restaurant/bar even though I knew that would be more expensive. As I was ordering the waiter told me all the credit card processing abilities in the entire terminal were down and they could only take cash. I burst into tears. A man at the table next to mine gave me some napkins and told me he'd pay for my food if I needed it. At the same time the waiter brought me some water and told me that he could take an imprint of my credit card and then charge me later. He said a lot of people don't like to do that though because it's easier for the number to be stolen that way. I told the man at the table next to mine thank you for the offer but I would do the credit card imprint.

I called a friend, told her what was happening and began crying hysterically again. As I was talking the waiter came over with my food. He came back a few minutes later and said the man who had been sitting next to me had already paid for my meal, and then the waiter handed me a $20 bill. The man had asked the waiter to give it to me because he could see I was having some kind of trouble and he felt I needed it. The man had already left the restaurant. When I turned to look for him he was standing outside making sure the waiter had given me the money. He smiled and nodded at me when I signalled my ecstatic thanks and then he walked away.

I will never know that man's name. I will never be able to truly thank him. But he gave me hope that there are still good people in the world. When I got back home and back to easy access to an ATM, I donated $20 to charity. Since that day I've tried to remember him whenever I'm in a situation where I can help others.

Have you ever had a similar experience? Has somebody given you hope? Have you given somebody else hope?

The coolest calendar

In struggling to find something to write about today, I found my eyes roving around my desk looking for inspiration. Catching sight of my calendar I smiled, amazed that after so many years I still use the same calendar every year and have been doing so since I was a teenager. They are always Hanukkah gifts from my mother, and I always know I'm going to get one.

The calendar is called "Cat Lovers Against the Bomb" and is published by Nebraskans for Peace, a peace activist group in Nebraska. The group has been producing the calendar since 1984.
I love the calendar because it combines two things important to me -- peace and cats. And I believe, as do the people who created the calendar, that the two go perfectly together. The calendar is full of fun, adorable black and white photos of cats paired with thought-provoking quotes by famous people.

For instance for this month's page, the photo is of two cats, one laying atop the other with its head on the other's head. The accompanying quote is "My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together," by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. February's page featured two cats in silhouette seemingly kissing with this quote: "An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all." -- Dorothy Day.

Of course, the calendar does not take itself too seriously, but maintains a sense of humor (just like cats do!) and the March quote comes from Dennis the Menace and says "Meow is like Aloha... it can mean anything."

In addition to the photos and quotes, the calendar is full of facts about virtually every day of the year. Most of the facts are political or peace related, but several are about amazing cats.

Here's a smattering of September facts:
September 1: On this date in 1939, World War II began when Germany invaded Poland.
September 9: On this date in 1828, Leo Tolstoy was born and in 1993 the PLO and Israel agreed to recognize each other.
September 15: On this date in 1963 the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, was bombed.
September 18: On this date in 1838 the New England Nonviolent Resistance Society was founded and in 1998 the Basque separatist group, ETA, began an open-ended truce.
September 20: On this day in 1987, Bities, a 16-year old cat with cataracts, arrived back in Oregon after being lost and located 3 months later in Lincoln, NE.
Septebmer 25: On this date in 1992, California became the 7th state to bar job discrimination against homosexuals.

Do you want to know what significant event happened on your birthday? Leave me a comment with your birth month and date and I'll let you know.