I was moon gazing last night because I couldn’t sleep so plunked down on my front steps looking up at it’s pearly face and endless mystery. I’d recently returned a manuscript and memo to a client and so my thoughts drifted to her story and characters. And just for fun, I imagined Kate the protagonist sitting in her lakeside home gazing up at the same moon though we were separated by many miles. Yes, this makes me sound a bit nutty, but I’ve been collaborating on this series for more than ten years, so I wasn’t surprised I could easily imagine Kate’s enjoyment of the moonglow.

Besides, I’m still considering the power of her latest story. The places where it’s really connecting to the reader and building toward the climax and also the climax of the long series that’s happening in a future novel.  Some days –and don’t-sleep-well-during-a-full-moon nights–when my clients’ stories are living in me, I’m simply having a wonderful time. And some days I’m unraveling thorny puzzles.

As we know good stories connect us, sustain us, push us beyond our skin and lives.  And I’ve been swimming in stories lately–reading more than one book at a time, though I’m now reading Marian Keyes‘ My Favourite Mistake. It’s the seventh book in a series about a sprawling Irish family and I’m in book love. And recommend it heartily even though I’m halfway through.

And I’ve been writing a lot lately, dabbling some days, making progress on others. I’ve been refining the voice I’m using in my current work. And have been ping-ponging around, examining other writers’ voices, analyzing how they’ve made them memorable. Amid this I’m expanding my word lists–I have many–with the kind of excitement I reserve for the Christmas holidays.  I’m having a blast and hope your writing is going well too.

Also hoping you’re always analyzing and evaluating writing even as you’re enjoying it–or maybe your method is to simply read for enjoyment and then allow the whole story to wander amid your thoughts once you’ve reached the end. Heaven knows my head is full of stories.

Back to this bodacious moon. When Macolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success was published it introduced a  newish concept about expertise. According to Gladwell and a study done by Herbert Simon and William Chase, mastery is achieved after about 10,000 hours of effort. Or practice, if you will.  Ever since I’ve heard this figure it has niggled at me.

Over the years I’ve come to question it because I’ve read too many authors whose first book was brilliant. Known writers who stumbled into success early in their careers.  Known many people who were clearly born artists or musicians or marvels. People who were fabuously successful  long before they logged in thousands of hours.  On the other hand, I know athletes and artists and musicians who have logged in countless hours of practice.

Ten thousand is such a finite number.  Where do prodigies fit into this equation? So here’s a short piece that adds more dimension to this question. What do you think?

Since you’ve stopped by here, you know the power of persistence. Of firm routines and habits. Of training your brain to overcome resistance. {Isn’t it fun how persistence and resistance rhyme?}

This leads me to the marvelous photo at the top of this post. Italian school teacher and astrophotographer Marcella Guila Pace  spent 10 years photographing full moons to assemble this montage. Here’s a link that explains more about her process.

Pace also explains that it doesn’t take 10 years to photograph this many colors of the moon. She also says,  “There’s something magnetic about the photo and I get daily compliments about it from around the world. It’s really important to me that it carries a message of respect for all forms of life. To live in harmony we need to be aware that it’s not just fellow man that is our neighbor, but that all forms of life are on this eternal path with us. It’s a path that’s isn’t a circle with a man in the center, but a spiral that’s constantly evolving.”

Isn’t this marvelous?

Keep writing, keep dreaming, have heart