Constructionism, not reductionism

In the early morning, I had a brief thought concerning the writing process, at least concerning my process. A lifetime of software development has built up callouses in my brain. But isn’t that fun?

The thought went something like this:

My process flows like a sculptor whose medium is of a soft character. Clay comes to mind. There isn’t an image trapped within a rock awaiting to be set free. Instead, there is aether teasing to become form.

The beginning of the process, after the rough sketches had progressed to fine lines, was to graduate to wire frame. Basic at first, progressing in complexity to hint an allusion of shape. To the form, eventually, the medium of soft character would make its first presence. It would be applied roughly, in large sections, built up in successive layers. The process continues until the point when the hulking shape is largely suggested. Polished when necessary for insight, otherwise, remaining rough. It is in the later actions that the artistry begins to emerge. Taking a gross, heavy object and transforming into a light, living, moving form. Genius inspired is the aspiration: Striving for progress. A path, pushing onward.

So, this had been my morning thought. Perhaps I was a bit groggy. Those that know me can attest to this: my morning condition.

Maybe groggy, but happy. Over the weekend, the new short story, A Fine Day, was completed. Proofread and rolled into an epub, it was pushed to the e-book vendors- out into the world. The writing process was three days for this title. I was good with that. The Walk only took two. However, that was a special two days spent: there had been no outline but the imagination in my head.

A Fine Day had a bit more form, having an outline to quickly capture the initial inspiration before it evaporated.

There was quite a lot of fun with this writing. Thinking on the main character, she developed into quite a piece of work.

She inspired me to tell her story as accurately as I could. Hopefully the prose transcribed does her justice. I’d be afraid to have this one cross with me; she does seem to like to serve it cold.

The new novel, Menthe, is with the proofreader now. It weighs in at about 88,000 words, plus a few. My poor proofreader. I’m really testing their dedication to diligence with the length and the content theme song.

A Fine Day was slipped into their queue. At 4,000 words, it was a playful distraction from the Menthe world. Perhaps in a couple weeks, Menthe too will be released into the Intertubes. Enjoy!

I’ve replaced the Menthe working book cover with the final image. Perhaps the working cover will be used for another project I have in mind: a dear project I thought Menthe was going to be before the creative process drove off with me in the trunk. What a crazy ride, but the journey needed to be told. Anyway, really happy how the final Menthe cover turned out. Only light retouching and color correction was necessary. Wonderful to work with negative film. A pleasure to work with RawTherapee for the color correction.

The cover for A Fine Day was happy creation as well. The image was from a picture in RAW format. It was fun pushing the color correction to really get the color of the balloon to pop, so to speak. The balloon in the picture was not staged: its helium depleted, a lost soul came back to earth to entertain our fancy in the high Alps of Switzerland- a brief sojourn on a metaphysical day of hiking.

So there you have it. We find ourselves back from the summer holidays and winding down with the kayak outings as the warm weather days become the memories of this year. The sleeves are rolled up- actually they are at this moment- and the writing flows, lifting humble words from obscurity. My hope is that you might enjoy the journey as well.

Precious is the light we emanate. It is, after all, the all that we have.

Live long and be fruitful with the joy you share.