I’m writing a fantasy novel, called “The Otter’s Wings,” about an otter who has wings.
And if that’s not living my best life, I don’t know what is.
As a writer, it’s easy to get lost in the wash of goals and aspirations that always seem just out of reach…
What I find that helps is to think of one of the novels I’ve finished, and remember back to what my very first inspiration for writing it was — a character? an idea?
Once I have that story seed in mind, I try to remember back to that feeling of hoping someday to have written a whole novel about it.
I sit with that feeling a few moments.
Then I remind myself: that whole book exists now; I actually wrote it.
This always makes me feel better.
My desk has a lot of Shelties under it.
This is part of my writing process.
One of the best things about writing a book called “The Otter’s Wings” is knowing that I’m really doing the title justice.
As a kid I was constantly disappointed by titles like “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” NO CATS. NOT ONE.
Well, that’s not what I’m gonna do.
If you pick up a book called “The Otter’s Wings” by me, it will LIVE UP TO ITS TITLE.
Otter.
Wings.
No tricks. No joke. Truly, this book is about an otter with wings, and they are on the page like all the time.
Me: describes the wings of the otter in my book
Friend: …
Me: “They’re the kind of wings it makes sense for an otter to have.”
Friend: …
Me: realizes that wasn’t a normal sentence, even though I said it like it was
It turns out that I can spend a long time talking about the difficulty of choosing and establishing the reasons for an otter in a novel to have wings.
There are a lot of different options.
And each option brings with it a different aesthetic.
This is very important.