Inktober Day 29: Not Done Yet!

I have been reading a great deal about how authors write what they write. It is fascinating to learn about the different ways authors are able to focus, concentrate and even develop the written word. Some use outlines, some just write, some follow a carefully designed plan, and others just pontificate. Some write and rewrite on the same day. Some lament over and over and over anything they have written. Some actively seek feedback and the opinions of readers, and still others shun any kind of audience until they are published. There are as many ways to write as there are ideas in the universe. Most successful authors figure out what works for them and they repeat that process over and over again.

Joyce Carol Oates reminds us here that the first and last lines of any manuscript are only finished when they relate to each other. The first sentence cannot be written until the final sentence is written. Isn’t that true of life as well? We cannot actually consider anything done unless we have connected it back to where we began? In other words, we cannot be our true selves unless we own the path we have traveled and embrace where it all started. Which means we have to handle or manage the shrapnel and debris we wadded through to get to the end.

You might think your story is coming to a close, that nothing new will happen. Now, now…never underestimate the power of a surprise ending, a good twist, or even the resolution of decades of turmoil. Isn’t that what any good story is about? The characters wading through the muck and mire of life to end up in a batter place, a wiser person, or – as in any Hallmark movie – in love with someone they hated only weeks previously! Life can change on a dime and we cannot predict where any of us will even be tomorrow.

So let us find our process, how we live and work and love. Let us embrace the joy that is life and it’s unpredictability…and let us give thanks for the people and places that got us here. Our story is not done. Our past does not have to define us AND our future has yet to be written. It takes courage to create and process to survive this thing called life. So go forth and be your best self, no matter what life throws in your path. The final sentence describing the kind of person you are cannot be written as you are not done yet!