Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Crossroads and Taking Stock

Scenes from St. Augustine: View down the stairs at the St. Augustine Lighthouse (if you're a Ghosthunters fan, you know Jay and Grant ran up and down these stairs, chasing a "shadow" later seen to peek over at the cameras, just as I'm doing here). Those are my toes, not the ghost's toes.

The photo seemed apt, since I'm hitting the "taking stock" point. I hate this, by the way. I don't know why. I don't have difficulty doing this in the teaching career. There is a very concrete plan for that and I take stock on that plan, on my classroom plan pretty regularly. Ditto on the house renovations. There's a plan, I know the plan, I work the plan, I monitor the plan.

But in this terms of taking stock, I feel lost, almost like I'm almost endlessly circling those steps above, not sure where I'm going, not sure if I'm going in the right direction. I think it comes down to not knowing for sure what I want. What do I want? Is the thing I'm currently seeking what I want or merely what I think I'm supposed to want, because everyone expects you to want that? If I do want it, why do I want it? And what if I want something else entirely and don't know it?

And once I figure out what I want, how do I get there?

Then I get into the need vs. want. What if I what I need is at odds with what I want? What then? And how do I know the difference?

It's enough to make my head hurt. But I really have to get a handle on this. I'm not good at simply flailing around without a plan.

So tell me . . . how do you figure out what you want and need? Help me out here. ;-)

**

Word count check: 40,211

Whoo! That's past the halfway point!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Linda! I’m not sure what you’re talking about, and what does “taking stock” mean? But um, trying to answer your question, I usually don’t know what I want/ need until *after* I do stuff. Then I know if it was or wasn’t the right direction to go in, was or wasn’t what I want or need.

Thanks for writing a book for Cookie! I liked him in Memories of Us, and was kinda thrilled when I learned he got his own book. :)

Also, I like your blog’s recent posts. Those are pictures of places mentioned in your books, right?


-a reader

Linda Winfree said...

Hello, Gentle Reader,

(I've always wanted to say that.)

Taking stock is my form of rambling my way through making a decision. Summer seems to be when I fall between books and need to start looking forward to where to go next as a writer. My head is just full of questions, a jumbled mess right now. ;-)

I'm glad you're looking forward to Cookie's book. I love, love, love him and can't wait for HEARTS AWAKENED to release. (Cookie's in HOLD ON TO ME, also, if you haven't read it).

The recent pics are from our vacation at the beginning of June to St. Augustine, Florida, which is the setting for a big portion of Cookie's book. I am planning this summer to take photos of the real local places that figure into the geography of my fictional Chandler County and I'll be sharing those as well.

Thanks for stopping by!
Lin