Blinkers Required

Harness horses wear them.

Carriage horses wear them.

Blinkers (also known as blinders). Those little squares of leather attached to the bridle and positioned near the eyes.

The purpose of blinkers is to keep the horse from being distracted by everything but the task at hand. A race horse that pays more attention to what’s going on in the grandstands or the infield or anywhere but the track ahead is not giving its full effort to winning the race. Especially in a close battle, focus can be the difference between winning and losing.

In certain circumstances, a horse that’s gawking at everything can also be dangerous because it doesn’t always run straight and may impede fellow competitors and cause accidents.

Even carriage and plow horses wear blinkers to keep them facing forward and doing the work they’re meant to do.

What does that have to do with writing? I’m glad you asked!

I’ve been working on the second draft of Saving Grace since mid-August. In August, I reviewed and analyzed the first draft. In September, I began the rewriting process with a goal of finishing the first act by the end of the month.

On September 1, that looked like a very soft goal.

When I was able to finish the first acts for one of the main characters and for one of the secondary characters by the end of the first full week of September, I was certain my month end goal was way too easy. I even squeezed in two days of ‘conversation’ with Anderson, the male lead, and still thought I’d be able to finish the first act with days to spare.

Silly me!

After doing everything else, I turned to Grace, the female lead, intending to spend a few days with her and nail down the final details for her part of the story.

Grace has always been an enigma. She refuses to show her face and getting her to tell me anything is like pulling teeth. At least two previous attempts to meet with her and interview her have ended in failure.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised to get to her first act and find myself suddenly facing a blank wall.

Or rather, facing too many open doors.

Unable to understand Grace well enough to know how she gets into the story, I floundered for most of the rest of the month trying to figure out it. By the time it was all said and done, I had a dozen possibilities, including the one in the first draft. They all had potential. Some of them had a lot of potential.

None of them seemed right.

I was like that race horse I mentioned earlier, wheeling around the last turn into the stretch, racing along well and in the lead when I suddenly noticed the crowd in the stands. Then the things in the infield. I was distracted by all those possibilities and losing momentum with a deadline looming ever closer.

Praise the LORD for the accountability of crit partners! When I cried for help to one of them, she responded by doing what any good driver does when his horse is losing focus. A nice, sharp slap of the reins and a reminder of the task at hand. Quit gawkin’ and git runnin’!

The race isn’t finished, yet. Not by a long shot.

But the first act was almost completed and I’m heading round the turn into the long middle part of the novel and hoping to have the second draft complete by the end of the year.

I still think a set of blinkers would be a good idea, though.

And maybe ear plugs, too. To keep out the noise of those distracting ideas sitting in the stands and shouting!