I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
7/3/04 I just sent off my series proposal to my agent, now I'm just waiting to see if he likes it or not. The entire proposal-writing process was so different and new, and I felt terribly insecure and inadequate doing it. I've never had to rely on God's grace more in my writing as when putting together those storylines. I mean, how do I know God's will, and what stories HE wants to tell through me? How can I be sure it's a true and Biblical message this storyline would convey? How to battle the insecurity that I'm not talented enough or even worthy enough to be His vessel and write His stories? I've never felt so weighted down with my own sin before, and had it undermine my love for writing. I had to bathe each hour in prayer in order to keep the words flowing. I started a fantasy short story to take my mind off of it. (I tried "pantsing" the story, but discovered that I'm too much of a "plotter" to do it--the prose is rambling aimles...