I Made a Desk, Now What?

"I made a desk

Or rather

A desk made me.

While toying

Tossing

Wrestling ideas

Wrangling plots

Characters

Motives

Swirling the story

Letting it

Present

New patterns

Pieces,

And possibilities

The mundane

Instructions

Emptied me

Out.

Step by step

I trickled aside

And let

The story

Fall

In to place.

I made a desk

Or rather

A desk made me." ~ Olivia J. Herrell

My New Sauder Desk

Thank you, Charlotte Levine Gruber*. Thank you for reading Blessed Are the Peace Makers to the end, all ninety-nine thousand, seven hundred and forty eight words. You are my hero.

Thank you for liking the story, characters, flow.

You were kind. And excited. And honest. As my first beta reader, you rocked it.

Thank you.

As a result of your much-needed input I have a prologue to absorb, characters to assimilate, others to flesh out, conflicts to stir, gaps to fill, future-tones to invoke, lines to draw, motives to manage.

Time for rewrite.

Pausing to let the “aha” break over me, I laugh just a little. I now understand first-hand the importance of a second reader. Someone not the author. What was clear to me as I wrote, wasn’t so crystal to my reader. Huh. Imagine that.

Thank you Charlotte*.

Revised scenarios play in my head and after back-aching hours, I have a desk, complete with drawer and two cubbys.

Today I made a desk, and in the doing, the desk made me.

~ Olivia J. Herrell

P.S. In case you were curious, I did unplug on vacation to a limited extent, leaving the laptop at home and using the iPhone sparingly. Considering AT&T is my carrier and we tromped around Oregon, that wasn't difficult.

* Charlotte Levine Gruber is the author of CODE OF SILENCE. Click here to read more.