Creating

I've been spending a lot of time recently focusing less on my writing, and more on physical creation. I've talked about the building and the pyrography, and I've been looking into how I can combine those, expand them, and what other skills I would like to gain and work with them. More mechanical building, more freeform building, wood turning. I've been looking into them a lot, looking for plans and ideas, and getting really excited about the possibilities. At this rate, some day nearly everything I own will be something that I've created, and likely created out of wood. And I'm ok with that.

It feels different from how I've been writing for a while. I have an actual goal as I step into my little workshop area, I have an image in my head of what I want to step out with, and even if I don't quite end up there, I'm at least getting close to that. I can see it. When I write, I step up to my story and I just start filling out words on the paper. I let my characters be in control of the story, frequently not even knowing the end goal, much less the path for how to get there. And I don't necessarily have a problem with that, I enjoy that that's a thing that I can do. It's a very cool experience to be able to go in with nothing and come out with something. But it can also be very intimidating at times, and it can make it very hard to know what steps to take to get through a tough spot.

I'm not sure that I necessarily prefer one to the other. But I have been writing for a very long time, and it's nice to actually be able see what's coming and how to go about it. It's nice, when you hit a snag in the road, to have a clear cut, solid way to be able to get around it. You don't have to go out of your way to make something up. You have a proven way to fix problems.

Of course, in both, sometimes those imperfections and problems are what end up making them beautiful and unique. Not always, obviously - sometimes they destroy the project entirely. But sometimes, when you take a step back from it, you can see it for what it really is and start to build the rest around it, instead of putting all your energy into correcting it.

Although, to be fair, it is much easier to do that when the problem is something you can actually lay your eyes on, rather than picture in your brain.