Ordinary Things... and a good day at the computer

Today, driving home from the hospital (my mum is beginning to recover, but it looks like she may be in the hospital for a while still), I heard a wonderful interview on CBC Radio with Scottish authorWilliam McIlvanney. He told Eleanor Wachtel, "What writing does is make us appreciate the ordinary things."

That thought really touched me. I looked through the car window at the snow covered trees in my neighbourhood and thought how they were ordinary things. And I remembered holding my mum's hand -- warm and veiny -- and how that was an ordinary thing, too. Sitting here at my computer is also an ordinary thing. Later, I'll go to buy the ingredients for spaghetti sauce, more ordinary things... and then I'll cook up a giant sauce for supper, using the only recipe I know by heart, my Aunt Carolyn's recipe for spaghetti sauce.

McIlvanney is quite right... writing is one way of capturing those ordinary things that make life meaningful.

So if you've read the title of today's blog entry, you may be wondering what made today a good day at the computer for me... I haven't told you this, but I've been a little stuck re-jigging the beginning of my new manuscript (due at the end of this month). A terrible accident happens in Chapter 6 and my editor has a hunch the accident needs to be moved up earlier in the story. Well, I've been trying and trying to find a way to do that. It's a bit like making a house out of cards. You pull one card out and there's a danger the whole house will collapse! Well this morning, I was getting REALLY FED UP and DISCOURAGED trying to make things work... and WHEN I GOT REALLY REALLY FED UP AND REALLY REALLY DISCOURAGED... SOMETHING CAME TO ME. And I think I just may have found a solution. So here's my wisdom for today. Take it or leave it. Sometimes getting really really fed up and really really discouraged is a good thing. Sometimes anyhow!!