I am a structure

The goal is to commit to a structure that can take on a life of its own, instead of creating only when the mood strikes. – Rick Rubin, music industry superstar.

I am a system. – James Harden, NBA superstar.

A structure

I am not sure if there are a lot of similarities shared by Rick Rubin and James Hardin, except for they both sport beards. However, this morning I am getting them acquainted just by writing this post.

You see, yesterday I finished my novel, The Trier Goes to London. I know I did because I found that I became a little emotional, my eyes getting wet with mix of sadness and joy and a lot of other emotions to boot.

This morning, I am doing the same thing, only there is no more to do on TGL. I know that is total nonsense of course. It is more accurate to say I finished TGL for the first time. A revision awaits, but I’m postponing that until it gets warmer. I can do that in a different environment, my front porch. Plus, it will give the manuscript time to hang out with my subconscious mind and work out what needs to be done. In a month or so, I’ll be ready to access all that.

But for now, I am a structure.

I built a structure

There was not a single morning in the writing of The Trier, or of TGL that I sat around and waited for the mood to write to strike. Ah, hell no.

I am just guessing here, but I think I got up and wrote 300 mornings and maybe missed a dozen. My muse, if I had one, would have given their two weeks long ago if I asked them to put up with that schedule.

The structure is built on pillars that have nothing to do with writing as found and defined in Dreyer’s English. It is wonderful book for writers. I found it funny enough that everyone who picked it up would enjoy it. But it would be of limited use to read without a structure around you.

Years ago, I went about building structure. It took time, trial and error and attention to detail. The pillars are captured on a chalkboard hung in my garage. I have visited these so often over the years that I do them these days out of habit. These are the pillars of the structure I built that I sit in now, that I sat in the past 300 days, and wrote another novel. I committed to them and in return, I sit contented within their walls and write, a novel, blog post, or an email or two.