IWSG - more lessons from my cat

sorry, i don't have an updated picture of Pepper, but he's 11 weeks old. and yes, i said he. 3 weeks into owning a cat we thought was a girl and we found out from the vet he's a boy. in our defense, he's a long hair and we got him at 6 weeks, so it was a little hard to tell. you can imagine the mind-adjusting we went through when we found out. it took almost a week. *for the weird story of his name-adjusting, read the bottom of this post.

so that's one thing i learned from my cat - life is full of surprises. something i already knew, but this was a purrfect reminder. it was also good for my novel because i have to reveal a truth to my characters that they won't expect--in fact, that will shake up their world. so now i can go back to the cat surprise for the emotions they'll experience.

-- persistence - Pepper doesn't give up on anything, especially when you wish he would. like trying to get to my morning glass of milk while i use the internet. or jumping onto the table when he knows he's not supposed to.

-- enjoying life - Pepper loves everything - exploring, climbing, chasing, playing, ambushing us from around a corner, or wrestling with his moose pillow. he puts everything he is into whatever he's doing.

-- resting - he doesn't nap as often as he used to, but this cat has no problem with sleep. i envy his ability to just nod off whenever he wants. (and quite often those naps take place on the moose pillow.)

how this relates to my writing?

-- i'm letting my story go in unexpected directions.

-- i'm trying to be persistent, but not in a way that's frantic.

-- i'm letting myself enjoy the process of writing, trying to let go of outcomes and just write. (at the advice of a good friend, my son and i decided to just write a sentence, and we ended up with half a scene. and we had a great time in the process because we weren't pushing so hard.)

-- when a scene won't come, or i'm just tired of the story, or just tired in general, i'm trying to rest instead of worrying.

as a follow-up to last months IWSG, i let myself stop for a while, figured out a story problem, and now i'm back to writing. it's hard to let go of outcomes and deadlines, but my mind is happier now, and it's easier to write.

to read what other insecure writers are saying today, go to Alex's new website.

*the kids didn't think Pepper was a good boy name. i disagreed. Pepper is gender neutral. a debate ensued. one suggestion was Jack Sparrow. (he does share some of Cap'n Sparrow's finer qualities) i made an executive parental decision. his name is now officially Cap'n Pepper Jack Sparrow. i call him Pepper. they call him Jack. most of the time, we just call him "Cat."