Writing, writing, writing…

I have a sore throat but I’ve decided not to whinge about it. I admit I usually do. I actually cope better with…well, for instance, that time I hurt my ankle so badly I couldn’t walk for a fortnight. Not that I’m knocking the seriousness of flu for it can be a killer and I don’t mean that metaphorically. A mild cold or a sore throat isn’t usually so serious for most of us, just annoying. I think it’s a writer’s thing. I like my head clear. Anything that interferes such as my throat niggling, a cold, a headache, and the writing processes refuse to process. This time I won’t moan for I’m very aware there are people out there with real problems, real illnesses, and they’re much braver souls than I am.

This time, I decided to try to work through it so every spare moment this week where I’m usually worrying about when I last put a load of washing on, whether we have enough milk in the house, or if I should do something online, such as oh…email a poor neglected friend, I’ve been writing. I’ve not even been reading. I’ve been writing. It’s not all been fun but I’ve been getting the words down, and I’m now at the turning point more than halfway through my forth Swithin Spin.

Then, something strange happened to me yesterday. Actually, not all that strange…IF you’re a writer. I’ve been writing about the Swithin world for…oh let me think. My first book came out in August 2006, I believe, and I had started it more than a year before that. I first created Uly, Markis and Ryanac in 2005. They’ve been with me a long time and I love my guys. There are some equally adorable subsidiary characters, which is what most of the spins are about, but these three will always be something special to me. They were the result of my first novel, a novel that if it hadn’t been accepted my father would never have lived long enough to read. I’ve created other things in the meantime and I have a growing catalogue of works in my head that will probably keep me busy for the next three years if not longer. But these guys…they started something for me. I don’t know what the future holds but they’ve been a part of life I’ll always treasure.

Yet, the one thing I’ve never known is where Markis’s mystical power comes from. In my books, legend has it that a comet crashed into their world and one man walked from the destruction. He was to become the first Swithin king and those of the royal line wield this power. Oddly, that’s not where my idea started. I’ve said many times I first saw a man sitting on a bench in open parkland and a theif about to creep up on him. My idea was no clearer than that. I still have my first feeble handwritten notes. Then I came across the name “Shavar, ‘meaning Comet’” and everything fell into place. I knew who the man was and why he sat there.

Yesterday, I suddenly knew the source of his power. I knew what the comet is. I just ‘knew’. It came to me in a flash, like a bolt of lightening, a falling star, a falling…(hahaha) comet. It happens like that for writers. Little pieces click into place, form a picture out of seemingly disconnected puzzle pieces. Sometimes it happens all at once, and sometimes certain pieces take time to find. No, I’m not giving away the secret because I think there may very well now be a 5th and final Spin one day. I think someone knows the secret and it will be her story to tell…maybe…but not yet. Part of the fun is finding the missing pieces that aren’t all neatly packaged up in the puzzle box.

This is why I think many writers write. It’s the creation. It’s putting all little parts together to make a whole. This is the part that is fun. I’ve struggled a little with the spins because there’s so many other things I want to get on with and because I need a break from this world and its people no matter how much I love them, but then yesterday, suddenly there…I was excited. I felt that thrill of discovery that’s been missing for awhile. Maybe it’s because I knew so much about this world and its people I thought there was nothing new to know. I’m so glad I was wrong.