Writecraft: Focus

The trouble with writing is you often get so caught up in the individual pieces that you no longer see the puzzle you're constructing. Such is life, I suppose: We strive so hard toward something only to find out we're going in circles. We'll get so caught up battling some obstacle, plot point, enemy, or whatever else that we completely forget our own goals.

When it comes to storyboarding, I'm a bit of a hybrid, a 'road tripper.' I'll make a list of notes, scenes, and plot points, and I might not ever look at said list again. My mind spins off faster than my storyboard can keep up with. This means I'm constantly trying to juggle a million thoughts, and I frequently lose sight of the end (which, most of the time, I don't know for sure till about halfway).

That also means when I lose the thrust of a story and can't see the big picture anymore, I have to stop everything, sit down,and map it back out: list form, spread sheet, color coding, mapping on a sketchpad, doesn't matter. Only then will I be able to see the story arc clearly again.

I went to a conference this weekend and realized it's sort of the same personally, too. Life has these weird moments of clarity, followed by an overwhelming sense of chaos (in which emotions can run from anger to fear to everywhere in between). How quickly, be it a conference, a mentor, a retreat, a church service, or whatever else, that clear-headedness comes and goes.

And in the end, the only way to break through the fog is to go back to the beginning, to the source, to the goal.

"Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the Father."

"Run as one who gets the prize."

"Cast off what's behind, and look ahead..."

Meditation: A Promise

The truth is that I love you
though you don't understand;
I really want to hold you;
but you can't let me touch

because you're weak and weary
because you're broken and so scared

you think that I will hurt you
with my hugs that crush the ribs
you think I'll up and strike you
when I only want to kiss your face;

I promise I won't hurt you, abandon or break you;
I will never leave you,
even if you break my heart;
I do not break my promise;
I never rescind my hand;

I'm begging you to trust me;
I'm hoping for your heart.

Writecraft.

Wrote this last night. Don't ask, other than I was pondering plot points and got a mite carried away with a particular feeling that wouldn't bug off.

====

I press my fingers together and worlds appear.

I turn the course of the world on the spin of a well-timed word.

My nails strike the keys, and villains appear;

By callous-worn hands heroes rise and fall.

I am a composer.

I am an artist.

I bend and twist, build up and burn down;

Come dance to music only I can hear

--unless by chance our spirits meet, and our beating hearts drum as one;

Come see the threads become one tapestry

--and shards of glass create windows stained.

Beauty rises on the wind and shadows sink with a blood-red sun;

Enemies come, an ocean vast, deep, wide, high and long--

Ten thousand upon ten thousand--

And only one confronts the throng.

The curtain is my canvas; the pen remains my sword.

Fear not a bard who loves to sing,

--but dread him whose voice does cease.

Dread not the Teller who sports his tales;

--if his heart goes cold, let courage die.

I'll face the darkness, so you do not;

I'll eat the poison and spare you all;

And plunge the depths of bitter gall--

Even perish alone in ink--

If that means the ball of clay rolls taught 'neath my hands.

For you, my hands grow old and break;

For you my fingers twist and bend

And for you do I expend my strength.

The ink sprawls across the page,

Making me feel as a musing mage;

Join me in this war I rage;

Creating, sustaining, saving, destroying, revealing

Secrets beneath parchment hid.

So bring me pen;

Bring me ink;

Let me my own fingers break

And the canvas spin beneath my palms.

I press my fingers

And see the turn of the universe;

Know the angle of this axis;

And the exact measure of the earth's curve;

Watch my hands all you will

But the magic shall never be revealed.