It is fun to do guest posts and hard at the same time. What to write? To be
honest, I couldnโt think of a a subject for this blog until I remembered one of
my secret solutions in the problem solving department.
But hereโs the problem. It is really so short and direct, it is hard to fill a
whole blog post with it. Just like the whole point of most diets is eat less and
move more and yet people fill books saying just that in long complicated ways.
What to eat, when to eat it, how to exercise, blah, blah, blah. The second half
of the books are usually recipes. All those pages and tricky maneuvers and
really all theyโre saying can be said in a sentence.
I could probably pad my solution with lots of steps, and examples. Make it seem
complicated like all those diets that tell you to combine certain food, or eat
before a particular time. I could tell you that you had to follow some kind of
exact order of steps and insist you could only use my favorite kind of pen.
But Iโm not going to do that. The whole point of the solution is that it is
simple, direct and easily available.
So here is the situation. I have hit a wall about what happens next in a book.
Molly is in jeopardy and unless I come up with some clever solution, the bad guy
is going to do awful things to her. Or what about the men in her life? They are
just standing around in my mind, giving me looks saying give us some dialogue,
preferably something witty. Well, and both Mason and Barry are trying to
convince me that I should write Molly into their arms.
Or I have reached a dark moment when all seems lost and I canโt think how to
save it. Worst of all I canโt come up with a beginning scene. The more I try,
the worse it gets. You get the picture.
Get ready, Iโm coming to the easy direct solution. Somewhere between the time I
go to bed and drift off to asleep I tell myself that I am stuck and that I would
really like a solution by morning. And then I forget about it.
In the morning I donโt flip my eyes open with a big AHA moment. Generally I
donโt even remember that I asked myself for help. When I do remember about being
stuck, I realize there was no big AHA moment and I temporarily panic and think
this is the time it isnโt going to work. But I tell myself to have some faith. I
get coffee, pen and paper and start to write something, anything. Maybe the
color of the sky, or what kind of clouds are floating by. Usually the writing
morphs into something else after that and the answer I asked for appears.
Characters start talking and doing things. I seem to need to handwrite. I think
for me there is special connection between my brain and the pen. The only
problem is that I will start writing so fast that my handwriting become
unintelligible even to me. But having the words land on the paper even if I
canโt read them does something. They are out in the open now and when I go to
the computer, they come back to me.
So, you see this is a long way of saying if you have a problem with writing or
maybe your life, tell yourself to work on in your sleep and most likely youโll
have an answer in the morning.
***
Betty Hechtman writes
two national best selling yarn related series for Berkley Prime Crime.
KNOT GUILTY and
FOR BETTER OR WORSTED are
her latest in the
Crochet series and
SILENCE OF THE LAMBโS WOOL
is the latest in the
Yarn Retreat series. All books in both series
feature patterns and recipes.
In addition, she has just released
STOLEN TREASURE, a Blue Schwartz Mystery as an e-book.
Formerly published as
Blue Schwartz and Nefertitiโs Necklace, it
features a 13 year-old babysitter who loves to cook and is accused of stealing a
priceless necklace. Three of Blueโs favorite recipes are included in the book.
She has a B.A. in Fine Arts and has taken classes in everything from improv
comedy to magic. She has written newspaper and magazine pieces, along with short
stories and several scripts. She splits her time between Southern California and
Chicago and has yarn stashes in both places. You can connect with her on
Facebook, Twitter and her
website. She blogs Fridays on
Killer Hobbies.
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