Seeing Beyond the Visible

Full moon tonight! Did you see that in my current moon box on the bottom right?

I love a full moon! It makes night like daylight in the wilderness and all the animals are out, so there’s a lot to see. And there’s nothing like canoeing a lake under moonlight, especially when the air is warm. The water is so smooth you can hear the shoosh of the canoe and tiny gurgling of dipping paddles.

Last August, my friend Jolene and I canoed Lost Creek Lake under moonlight. Ah, but it was more than a bit scary coming back to shore behind the shadows of a hill and not knowing what was there to greet us. I unknowingly carried a frog home with me in my beach towel. Glad it was only a frog! Bear and cougar often drink from the very spot we put in.

So what’s that got to do with writing?

There’s a full moon tonight. Did I tell ya?

But I won’t be able to see it. The clouds have dropped to the hills and snow has been falling for several days, so I have to trust that the moon is still there, and I have to trust that my little “current moon” box is telling me the truth.

Sometimes it’s like that with my writing.

I’ve got an idea in my mind … a plotline perhaps? … but sometimes it’s so hidden that I simply must trust my instinct and keep on writing.

My instinct is powered by The Creator. I don’t always see Him either. In fact, I’ve never actually SEEN Him. But I have plenty of evidence to believe He’s there. Not only there. But here … inside me … beside me … I live and move and have my being in Him.

I don’t have a little “current God” box, but I do have a book written by many folks who attest to God being there, here, among us. Several hundred folks who even saw Him after He was supposed to be dead. They saw Him taken into Heaven … laughing Creator, very much in touch.

So, today, I write, trusting my instinct to move forward. That doesn’t mean every word I write is from God or is perfect. But it does mean that I’m making progress.

Editor, Chip Macgregor, once told me that his writing process usually consists of writing something like 3,000 words, then tearing that apart and cutting it to 1,500 words, then adding another 750.

That’s about right.

A lot of what I’m writing today will go the way of the MAC trash barrel. Some of it will come back. But I need to write it all in order to get any of it down.

What are you writing today? Can you trust your instinct to carry you forward?

There’s a full moon out tonight. Can you see it? It’s trying very hard to peek through the clouds.

So even though writing is truly more about rewriting, today let’s write! And worry about the rewrite tomorrow. Today has enough writing of its own.