Getting the Wheels Turning

Starting from scratch is never easy…

Staring at the blank screen, blank canvas, a blank page is always intimidating.

I remember standing in the middle of the art studio — bright white blank canvas stretched across a wooden frame, and being terrified. It was Oil Painting 101 and I didn’t have a clue where to begin.

The teacher was confident we all had talent. He asked, “How did you get in this class or are you a total waste of space?”

I wondered.

“He tried to be encouraging. Pick up your palette, grab a tube of paint and the largest brush you have, and just get started. Let the brush lead you.”

I sat and waited for the muse to speak. My canvas remained blank.

“Just begin,” the teacher urged the class. “Let the paint tell you what to do next. We call this ‘intuitive painting’.”

I wanted to believe him. He was, after all, a professor — older and wiser than most of us. I was 20 and totally intimidated.

It took another 15 minutes of staring off into space before I finally had the courage to pick up a brush. Finally, the muse took over. I started splashing about. Globs of red and green paints quickly covered the gesso covered canvas. I picked up a rag and dragged it across the surface. Little bits of cotton got stuck in the paint.

I stepped back and looked at what I had created. A bit of a mess, I admit, but at least I got something started.

It’s the same way with writing.

Staring at the blank computer screen is just as bad as the blank canvas. It stares back, daring me to start something. My biggest problem— and I’ve heard this a lot from would be painters and writers — is the problem of self-editing. If it’s not perfect, I stop and correct it. I re read what I’ve written and dump it, or x it out, whatever. Such a pattern of working makes the whole process go very slowly. And after all is said and done, I still end up with a mess… only it’s words rather than globs of paint.

Sigh.

NaNoWriMo begins next month. (National Novel Writing Month)… it’s a chance for would be writers to challenge themselves to get something on paper for the masses to read. 50,000 words is the goal. That works out to be the length of a short novel.

I’ve been trying to write a mystery since the middle of last year… failed to finish in 2018’s NaNoWriMo … still working on the outline so I am back at the beginning and can start again for this year’s event.

I thought it would be easy… but it’s become a grind. I’ve listened to the experts encourage me to start…. one word at a time… just start writing… and don’t edit as you go. Get your thoughts down. Worry about the syntax and spelling after you’re done. Reminds me of Painting 101!!!

So here I go. Keyboard at the ready. A dozen ideas floating around in my brain… no focus yet.

I know it’s a mystery and somebody gets killed, but I don’t know why and I’m not sure who the killer is. I keep coming back to this old story about a witch who lived on Cape Cod, had a son who ran away and became a pirate. Returned with his loot to bury it on the seashore. His mother helped him conceal the location.

The pirate died, the witch died and the location of the loot was lost to history.

When my story opens, it’s modern times and a would-be writer in search of a good story to write, settles in the very village in which the witch lived. The writer discovers a tin box hidden behind the tiles of the cabin’s fireplace. In the tin box is an old map with some pen scratches she can barely make out. Numbers and symbols pointing to the location of buried treasure?

She shows the map to the bartender at the local pub. He laughs at her and says it’s all a hoax. Years before rumors spread and tourists flocked to the town and the nearby beaches in search of buried treasure. None was ever found. But if she wants to keep digging, he’ll be happy to point her in the wrong direction. He suggests she bring the old map to Kate, the town librarian and so some decent research. Who knows? Maybe this scrap of paper has the key to her future after all.

To be continued…