Einstein and Solomon

Einstein said in the midst of chaos lies opportunity. My brain has been a little bit of chaos this week. Work is starting to get busy again. Life is… well there are ups and downs. The downs are a tempting distraction… well tempting to ignore. Ignore through vexation with myself about my writing.

Earlier this evening I started writing a blog about Solomon’s famous story. You know the one where two women come to him begging for a declaration as to which one is a mother to the child? He tells them he will cut the child in half. One woman is perfectly content with that compromise. The other is horrified and would rather let the child go and survive… proving she was the mother.

I was thinking about cutting things in half and debating whether or not that made me the true parent of my manuscript. Or was I abusing the child of my imagination by deciding it could be cut to pieces? Such agony over fiction. Really.

So I took a shower. At some point under the steamy spray I had an epiphany. It sets me back quite a bit. It’s a minor overhaul to a section… but I think it is a resolution that will bring me to a better peace about cutting down the first half… and making it a half. Because, let’s face it. This is a book. Not a child. It is malleable. It isn’t etched in stone. It doesn’t hurt physically or emotionally if I chop it up to pieces. It regenerates. It loses a piece and heals or grows another.

I still have a half dozen clouds in my head – just about the books and where I want to take the next step after another edit and reworking. Not to mention the clouds of real life. But, well… in the chaos is the answer. It’s just a matter of holding on long enough to wait for it to settle into place.