Salty Wounds

I’m trying my hand at developing a strip, comic and otherwise. The saga continues with Miss Tree. She had to be reminded of her lack of a giraffe by none other than Momma Tree.   Momma Tree means no harm, but salt is poured into the wounds nonetheless.   Miss Tree is resilient.  As this story will hopefully play out, she will learn that if she accepts the wrong giraffe, she will not have any leaves left for the giraffe prepared especially for her.  At least that is what she reminds herself as she waits patiently with her branches swaying in the breeze.

In other news, the editing of my book has hit a small snag: I don’t have any time! I’m about five chapters in and have about 18 more to go. I must say that the story line is consistent, and I have not run into any major contradictions.  My character web looks like a mangled mess, but the character relationships overlap nicely, and my main characters are clearly defined as well as discernible.  I just want to make sure that there is adequate rise and fall throughout the book which has become the most time consuming part of my editing process. I may be second guessing my initial choices too much, but only time will tell. 

Another hurdle in completing the editing of my manuscript is the fact that as I read along, I have a mental flood of concepts for my next books.  I know what I would like the characters to accomplish and experience next in their lives.   I usually have to stop and take notes as the ideas break through into my consciousness.  On top of the inspiration I get from the manuscript, I have daily occurrences that just need to be shared…through my characters of course.  I find that one never can expect what will happen in this life.  The human experience is one that is learned while it is lived.  I learned something very new today or maybe it is old, but repackaged either because of time or because of my own level of maturity. I just heard on a prayer call (http://www.theprayercall.org/) yesterday that at times, we pray for things in faith and when we look around,  it looks as if the direct opposite occurs. So, I learned today that no matter how antithetical a situation may become, God’s hand will either fix what’s broken or give a completely different model. Not profound in the least, but exactly what I need to hold fast to in order to get the salt out of my wounds, whether the salt was poured by loved ones or ones that I had hoped to love.