Christy English

Following the Stream of Thought

Friday, December 23rd, 2011 | Random Thoughts, The Writing Life | 3 Comments

Where do the streams of our work lead us? Where do they come from, and where are they going?

These are truly random questions, drawn from the myriad of random thoughts that are flowing through my mind today. They are questions without answers, as all the best questions are.

I do not know where my work comes from, or where it is taking me. That is part of the joy of the journey: not knowing. Always following the stream of consciousness that leads to the next story, to the next character, to the next world that has yet to be born.

I love following that stream. I have been doing it all my life, during all the years when I wrote only for myself and my Muse. Now that I write novels for others to read, I  do it still. There is music in the stream that leads me onward. I can’t see where the stream will end, if it ever will. I follow it through dark forests, through deserts where the stream dries to a trickle.  I follow the stream of my thoughts, the stream that runs through my life, knowing that I will find the next character along its banks. Another world to enter, another life, another story to tell.

Tags: Writers, Writing

Old Books in Front Street

Monday, December 5th, 2011 | Independent Bookstores, Random Thoughts | No Comments

http://oldbooksonfrontst.com/node/695

Old Books on Front Street is one of Wilmington, NC’s  independent booksellers. It has been around for thirty years,  and yesterday we celebrated its birthday with cake and a fabulous band. Folks drifted in with their children and their dogs to browse the books and to take in the warm charm of the haven that Gwenyfar and the Rohler family have created for books, poets, novelists and readers. With the dawn of the digital age, it is lovely to see a thriving home for books and those who love them.

Happy Birthday Old Books on Front Street…Here’s to another thirty years.

Tags: Indie Booksellers, Old Books on Front Street

Why Do We Write?

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 | Gratitude, Random Thoughts, The Writing Life | 7 Comments

Photo Credit

San Miguel de Escalada

http://www.paradoxplace.com/Photo%20Pages/Spain/Camino_de_Santiago/Camino.htm

Why do we write?

To find the shadow of ourselves in the faces of our characters.

To explore times where we have never been, places that we will never see.

To discover what is lost, to heal what is broken.

To walk the road to Santiago, to begin a quest, to see the face of God.

There are other reasons, as many as there are visible stars in the sky.

But for today, these reasons are enough.

Retreats and the Fourth Draft

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011 | Random Thoughts, The Writing Life, Writer Retreats | 2 Comments

Sometimes in the midst of a major re-write, it can be a real blessing to step away from life as I know it and go on a writer’s retreat. Of course, the opportunity for this is pretty rare. Often writing has to happen in tandem with the rest of life, and that is how it should be. But sometimes, every once in a blue moon, a major revision ( or opportunity to make the book better) comes alongside the opportunity to go away for a long weekend and do nothing but write. I was fortunate enough for that to happen for me this week, and I give thanks to the Muse and all the writing gods. Sometimes a plan comes together, and it is a beautiful thing. Now, if I can just make the book even better with draft five…

Tags: The Writing Life, Writer Retreats, Writing

Writing as a Blessing

Monday, November 7th, 2011 | Random Thoughts, The Writing Life | 2 Comments

Every time I sit down at my computer to begin the next phase of my novel, I realize how blessed I am.  When I begin my work, my characters show up to tell me their stories, to open the door into their world so that I can step into it with them, and hopefully bring my readers with me.

It is a privilege to do this work, and a joy to watch as a new world unfolds before me. I feel almost as Michelangelo did when he said that the sculpture exists already beneath the marble, and he was the one to free it. I am no Michelangelo, but I think every creative person knows a shadow of what he means. The work as it is meant to be born lurks in the darkness just beyond our reach, whether a piece of sculpture, a painting, or a novel. As a novelist, as I begin to give myself over to the work and to the story the characters want told, the novel begins to unfold before me almost like magic.

I do not mean to say that it is easy and effortless and that birds are always singing and that rainbows light my path. Sometimes it is dark where I’m walking…sometimes the Cave is a lonely place. But always, no matter how long it takes to bring a novel into the Light, the book and the journey to create it is a blessing.

Tags: The Writing Life, Writing