Something New

Goodness, it’s already been a whole week since I wrote in this blog! Shame on me. I do have somewhat of an excuse. My husband and I were away for three days to celebrate our 30th anniversary and I’ve spent the rest of the week “catching up”.

We also spent a day helping our daughter pick out a new car. As we advised her with negotiations and gave our input to the choices available, I couldn’t help but think how buying a new car is somewhat like starting a new writing project.

You go to the dealership knowing what you want, but when you get there, you discover the price is beyond what your budget can handle. So, you look at the other choices and modify your expectations. Kind of like having dreams to write a three book series and realizing that maybe you should get a few short stories written first.

There are two different kinds of buyers in the automobile market. One is the impulse buyer, like me. I go to a lot, see something I like, and, assuming it fits into my budget, do the test drive, and sign the papers. My daughter, on the other hand, studies the Internet for days, talks to other people, and makes her choice based on carefully studied facts. Kind of like a SOTP writer verses an outliner. If she were a writer, she’d definitely be an outliner. Even though I do some outlining, I lean more toward SOTP.

What about options? My daughter got some pretty fancy options on her new vehicle, like a sunroof and a 6-CD player and all kinds of things I’ve never heard of. I drive a pick-up that has what I call the standard options, but I don’t go that much for fancy as I do for size. I want something big with a lot of power that represents the wanna be cowgirl in me.

I think our writing reflects who we are, just like our vehicles do. I like to think my writing possesses a certain power, the power that the Lord gave me to influence others with words. I like to hunt for new words when I write, not necessarily flamboyant words that leave the reader wondering what in the world I’m trying to say, but compelling words that draw vivid pictures for my reader.

I did a presentation at my local Toastmasters meeting yesterday. It was supposed to be a “tall tale”, so I took a story, personalized it, and threw in some exaggeration. I was in competition with another speaker to be a contestant at our area contest on October 6th and won. I’m excited to be going into competition with a speech. I’ve been in competition in other aspects of Toastmasters, but never with a speech I’ve written.

The person who did my evaluation yesterday said I had a wonderful command of vocabulary and that some of my words carried a lot of power.

If only I can take that power and channel it into my novel, I’ll be as happy with it as my daughter is with her brand new car.