The Path

I would like to use this painting of "The Path" as a comparison to writing a novel. Can you see the secret, magical garden in the background where all things are possible? Where ideas flow? Where stories come alive in the mind and the words appear on the pages just as they should . . . all the comas in the right places?

See the path? It's the path we take on our journey to become the author we see ahead of us, Sometimes the path is smooth and easy to follow. Sometimes the path is covered with weeds and we stumble over the rocks hidden beneath. We fall and we have to pick ourselves up and clear the path before we can continue on.

I campare that to writing a manuscript, which lacks something that is needed to catch the publisher's eye. and we've scraped our knees when we fell. So we bandage the scraped knees, take a deep breath, pull the weeds and clear away the rocks so that we can see, with a fresh eye, what we need to do to get to the secret garden of publication.

The path becomes visible again, the knees have healed, and we've learned a new secret. It's called the secret of rewrite, rewrite, rewrite until what we have is what is we really wanted in the first place. What a great learning experience. What magic.

Now, I have to go to the kitchen and help make bacon and french toast for 5 grandsons and their parents. Have a great day.