Sometimes Down is Good

It's raining this morning. A bit of a surprise as the local weather people assured us it would be a nice day. Oh, well.

Kind of down again. It's the garage. Home searching. Doctor visits on the near horizon. Writing. And the rain. I guess yesterday's attempt to lift myself up wasn't so successful after all.

The truth is, I've done some of my best writing when I'm down. Maybe that's why I tend to embrace the feelings so warmly. They're not only familiar, but they are filled with inspiration. When I am down I seem to relate better to my characters. They become more real to me, and I begin to understand better why they are doing what they do. Even characters I didn't particularly like.

It was during a down time that I developed Odelmaar's character, and indeed, his whole family. (Odelmaar is one of the 'heavies' in Swords of Fire: Traitor.) Up to that point I didn't like Odelmaar at all. Or any of his children. In the down time I learned about his daughter. She ceased to be known as "FM 225" and was given a name: Tavaar.

In case you're wondering, "FM 225" was how I designated unnamed characters.

"F" indicated the character was female.

"M" indicated the 12th generation since the founding of the family compound.

"225" was the 225th unnamed girl of this generation.

The mother at this time was "FH173".

I was rewriting the story and had reached the place where Khirsha was in Gahrem Village, serving his latest punishment as a toteman on a small caravan. Odelmaar's daughter became important to the scene, but it was only later that I learned why. After her and Khirsha's - encounter - I became more interested in Tavaar. Who was she? Why was she like that? Ultimately this would lead me to write Tavaar's Backstory, which took nearly a year. (And it still isn't finished.)

I fell in love with Tavaar, which is kind of sick when I think about how much of me is in that character. Guess I'm a bit of a narissist.

I used down times to write a lot of Prophecies of Madatar, particularly when scenes involved Elden and/or Mishua. Apprentice was written entirely during a down time. The draft, anyway. Most of my story germs are created in down times. Only a few have come when I was "up". I guess "up" is too superficial. It's the "down" times which put us in touch with the spiritual side of life.

The problem with this down time is the timing. I will not be available much to write today. Got the garage sale going. In the rain.