At the Point

At the Point
Have you ever arrived at a point in your life or a point in a task and you ask yourself, “What am I doing? Am I doing this task well enough, am I doing the job correctly, or has the task become so familiar that I can no longer tell the difference anymore?
Sometimes when I try to write the next pagees in a new book about a trapper and his dog, I am concerned about the writing. Not the plots, because the plots usually are good, but am I being too wordy as I explain and share my thoughts. Are they well enough for my readers to understand what I want them to see or am I sharing more than I need?
I try to share what my characters are thinking, what they are seeing, and their emotions. I want my readers to see things through my eyes. I want them to feel the same emotions that I am feeling. I want the story to seem real to them. I have friends who proof read. They help me to eliminate some of the extraneous thoughts, but occasionally, it will shallow the character and lessen the impact or the emotional connection with the character. Oh, well, my friends don’t always have the last say. I don’t mind when it streamlines the story by eliminating unnecessary rabbit trails and cuts out the tangents that occur when I write.
I have been collecting a number of stories. The themes in each are pieces of nostalgia with the plots cenetering about and around the time of the Christmas holidays. It is to be a series of short stories set in the 1940’s. Each tale shares the emotions of a lost husband or wife. The person who is left behind is drawn back to remember the lost loved one by an accidental scent, a song, a letter, a Christmas ornament, or a Christmas card.
I will continue to write these short stories hoping and praying that I can create something that is enjoyable with a touch nostalgia tossed in to prevent boredom. I pray that I can think of enough plots to actually put them together to complete a book even if it is like the holiday time magazine Ideals.