Back to Basics & Curiosity

I am stuck! All the information I have written down, gathered and processed for my book so far is in different documents in my computer. Of course I have printed those documents and sorted them, but now I am looking at piles of paper that are not making any sense to me. Believe me, I couldn't do without my MacBook, Internet or blogging anymore, but writing a book simply is an old-school art. It is like creating a mosaic. With every piece it becomes more complete. After adding the piece, the figure may look completely different and gives you a different angle from which to continue. Creating a story is also like creating a good wine. It needs time to mature in your head, time to develop.

Using the computer is great, but it is like painting a painting while you can only see 1/8 of the fore-study. You miss the overview, no matter how you organize everything in folders in your computer. Time to get back to my writing tips and books to see how to control this chaos. Best tip: visualize! So yesterday I bought some basic white carton cards to write things down in the old-fashioned way. Next step is to buy myself a big bulletin board where I can pin all these cards with information on. Preferably using all kinds of different colors to group the information. And I need to start making choices, because I don't need ALL of that information! So back to basics.

This weekend Holland has lost one of her biggest writers ever. Harry Mulish died at the age of 83. I loved to hear that Mulish was always curious, even at an older age. Wanted to know about new technologies, about new developments in the world. I believe in that kind of curiosity. I believe it keeps your spirit young even when your body grows old. Always look up that one word you don't know the definition of. Find out what the precise story is about a historical fact, even if it happened way before you were born. If you don't like social media, don't use them, but at least look up how they work and try it, just once. Children are always curious. They can keep on asking you questions. Go back to that curiosity! Always, always, always be curious! Love, M.