Awake and Thinking

I just realized I rarely talk about my writing in here, so bear with me while I do. Sometimes, when I can't sleep I write in my head or at least think about my stories. I'm not always stressing out about life, which is a good thing. I can, however, stay up late writing in my head too. I've always been a creative person. For me, fiction and writing is a natural part of my life. I've been making up stories since I was a little girl. I do believe creativity runs in my family. We have artists, seamstresses, carpenters, and a couple of writers (journalist types) in the family. It makes sense I express myself through words.

I've lazed in bed on a weekend morning or a day when I don't have to be up early and think about my stories. Sometimes, scenes or actual bits of plot come to being from these moments. Often, I just try to work out a scene that is troubling me. Unfortunately, I'm still troubled with two of my stories. I still don't know how to end my first novel. I need my main character to go off to Europe with her daughter and her best friend. She is supposed to spend the inheritance his partner left for her and her daughter when he died. Meanwhile, the best friend will meet a nice guy in Spain and stay, giving her the keys to the NYC apartment and tell her to move back to NYC, which I can see happening. However, I don't want to write about her adventures in Europe and I need to make her reunion with her daughter's father seem realistic. Oy. That's where I've been stuck for a long, long time now.

Then with my second story, which is the one I've been writing for a couple of years now, is at another turning point and I can't decide how it all ends. This is a story that I don't want to see end. I love my characters. for better or for worse, they truly live in my head. A few nights ago, I was thinking about, Isabel and Andrew, (the twins of this story) and a scene that emerged as a result of my thoughts on the election.

They were sitting around the county fair building here in town waiting to vote. Of course, there was the usual conversational banter between them. He was reading and studying all the voter guides, which I'm sure he'd read and studied before. He had the bishops' guide for Faithful Citizenship, the archbishop's pastoral letter, and whatever else he found helpful to help guide him in his decision. He was smart, well-educated and didn't like that he had to make this choice, either way he felt it was a bad one. Meanwhile, Isabel knew how she was going to vote, no second guessing, no reservations, but her brother, the priest, was struggling as many people I know are struggling.

Perhaps I was working through my election conflict through Andrew, the priest character.
Maybe I was thinking or speculating what the priests at my parish were struggling with this year. I really don't know. This isn't a scene I'll finish or include in the story but I had to write it. I tend to find stories in just about all things, some are good ones to tell, others just little pieces to the whole. Often, I write about things I've been observing in others and not necessarily happening to me. You never know what just might inspire me to write something.