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MOVE THAT MOUNTAIN!

Written by Vicki Hinze

On November 15, 2005

“Anyone can move a mountain–one pebble at a time.”
–Vicki Hinze

This past weekend there was a major shift on the home front. Unexpected and unwelcome, as shifts typically are. I debated on wallowing in it, but then figured crawling out of it would just be an additional pain in the tush, so I mourned a little, sniffed a little, then decided to act to make the shift more acceptable to me and take it in stride.

This was a smart move. No abyss, no dark hole, no lingering sadness or nastiness that makes one feel like the dregs left in the coffeemaker a week.

And so it was back to the new Bombshell proposal, the kick-off for a new trilogy within the WAR GAMES series, KILL ZONE. I really like this heroine, Dr. Morgan Cabot. You know her from Double Dare and she was referenced in Bulletproof Princess, but it won’t be out until February. Anyway, Morgan is so like the rest of us. She’s got issues, but what I love about her is that she doesn’t push her issues onto other people. She doesn’t judge them, or expect them to live up to her standards and do things the way she would do them. I admire that.

To be honest, working a synopsis in November isn’t thrilling to me. It’s my spiritual renewal month and I typically schedule everything so that this time is set aside for review and assessment and then for planning the next year. That’s essential, at least to me, to keep focused on what most matters to me professionally. One can’t develop a plan and then ignore it and expect positive results. One can’t drift and not have to suck up regrets, either. I’m so not fond of regrets…

A plan is a dynamic tool, and like everything else of value, it requires time and attention–nurturing. And mine will get it. But for yesterday and today and a few more days, duty calls. And it’s name is synopsis, plot board, and first chapter.

Yesterday, I whipped the synopsis into shape, and before dawn this morning, I had the plot board nailed down. (Yes!!!!) The pre-work is done and now comes the fun part. The writing. But there is a snag…

It seems a little twisted to open a chapter in a morgue during spiritual renewal season. But I’ve thought through this a thousand times and the bottom line is that a writer’s gotta do what a writer’s gotta do, and that is to write absolutely the best opening possible for the book. Added to that is that a writer is a slave to the story and, twisted or not, she must bite the bullet and do what is best for it. The gift bears that responsibility.

I think it’ll probably end up being a great scene. Not because of my skills or any of that. But because it’ll have that added otherworldly “magical” element that is a direct result of when it’s being written. Why is that?

Because a writer writes, filtering every word, every detail and event and nuance, through the writer. And if renewal matters are on the writer’s mind, then they’re bound to color the writer’s perception. And that altered perception will come through in the work. Sometimes that can be a potent perk–and I’m betting that the relationship between death and dying and spiritual renewal will be a powerful perk.

So I’m eager to get to writing, to see if this proves true. It’s funny. I already know it will. How can it not? Yet seeing the evidence is in itself a type of renewal. Faith in the process. Trust in the connectedness of things.

Maybe having this project come now was a good thing after all. I might have missed seeing that relationship and making that observation. And let’s face it, observations are amazingly important to writers.

Ah, another pebble rolls aside, out of my path…

Blessings,

Vicki

Vicki Hinze
c2005
www.vickihinze.com

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