Leaving the world as it is, and entering the border between the world as it was, and presently exists in the newly leveraged chaos of change requires courage and faith. It also asks for willingness to acknowledge that one has entered the unknown.
Like our protagonists, each time we venture to write a new story or novel we exit the comfort zone of what we have accomplished, and depart once more into that land of yearning and desire. We strive to bring our characters into new life by transferring them from the mind of our imagination, onto the eye and landscape of the blank page, that of our computers or notebooks and ultimately to that of the published book, or the lighted screen of a Kindle, Nook, or some other electronic reading device.
Fear accompanies this declaration of the goal we seek to achieve. Sometimes we experience a momentary sigh of relief, that we have begun the task long held at bay.
Aggravation and frustration arise when encountering the obstacles of stalled plots or perhaps characters that want to have their way.
Good stories abound with obstacles?
The best contain monumental hills and valleys that challenge our will as writers, and the physical and mental strengths of our characters.
Acceptance of the challenge stirs a vicissitude of emotions that mark our journey on an internal level.
On the physical plane we come to learn the rules of writing and discover our strengths and weaknesses in crafting stories.
Simultaneously our central character(s) meet rivals as they learn the order of the new world into which they have been thrust.
Entering this borderland region marks the move from the beginning of a story to that of the middle where through challenge conflict a new person emerges, both in our protagonist, and us as writers. No author is the same after completing a book.
Likewise the person we become does not remain when we start a new work.
And hopefully those who read our books will experience a transformation that moves them to tell another about our work.
How much has writing changed you?
What part of your identity has undergone the greatest transformation as a result of crafting your stories?
What has been the most moving book you have read?
What novel or story that you have written has affectated the greatest shift in consciousness?