Overactive Creative Juices

Sometimes I don't know when to calm down my overactive creative juices. They drive me to work on too many projects at once. I write multiple stories for my different publishers and struggle sometimes to keep each character assigned to ONLY his/her story. Sometimes these characters want to jump into someone else's story just to drive me nuts, contrary people that they are. In this instance, I think they're using their own creativeness by wanting to see themselves somewhere else, with someone else, doing something else. Nutty characters! (Oh, no, maybe that's me for even thinking this way.)

Recently I went to and joined a quilt guild where I ran into a couple hundred truly amazing quilters. My meager skills really looked bad, but I'm still learning. These people create some beautiful quilts, most of them from familiar patterns (to them, not to me). But the lady doing the program that day was so entertaining, so enjoyable as she showed off about 40 of her collection of finished quilts. She started off by asking the crowd of long-time quilt fanatics if they had fabric stashed in their closets, under their beds, in various nooks and crannies. I don't, but my sister does.

Anyway, this reminded me of writers. Most of us talk about having early works stashed away under beds, in boxes, on flash drives, etc.

She went on to show us her first quilt, less than as perfect as her newer ones but still far better than my first one was. She retired from IBM (a big dog with the company) and decided she wanted to quilt. She got a book, skimmed through it, and dived into making that first quilt. Then she took it to a quilting group and they asked her, "Did you wash the fabrics first?" Of course, she gaped at them, not having known this RULE.

Again, this reminded me of a new writer. We read how-to-write books, then dive in and create our first book. Missing a few gazillion of the "rules."

The lady went on to show us quilt after quilt, each with some kind of history of her stepping stones in her quilting career. Making mistakes, learning the "rules," but not giving up. Over 400 quilts later she is still whipping these babies out. Now she is designing some of her own patterns, using her creative talents in another way.

That's how I see my writing career. Writing, learning the "rules," and continuing on my merry way.

I also do this with my quilting, of which I prefer to do quilt photo art projects. Meaning I take a photo from a favorite place I've been, sketch it out, plan what fabrics to use, and then create a one-of-a-kind quilt project. They're not perfect, probably never will be...but I don't care. They mean something to me. This is one I'm still working on, the Tuck Box, which is a funky little restaurant in Carmel, CA and a favorite place for my daughter and I to go. Forgive me if I've shown you this before.