Many writers have heard the advice to begin your story “in media res,” which is a Latin phrase that means in the middle of things. It’s easy to imagine that this means opening your story in the middle of a battle or an argument, but I think it’s simpler than that. Real life is an ongoing evolution of self, and your character’s life should feel similarly continuous, with threads that were set in motion well before the opening lines. Always in progress. Never finished—because they, like us, are never truly done.
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Many months ago, I took a picture of my garden shed and doodled a plan for raised beds on the image. As I sketched, I felt certain that I would knock this project out in no time, but I didn’t get back to it until recently. Every time I passed the unfinished beds outside, I felt the pressure: UGH, THIS SHOULD BE DONE BY NOW!!!
And yet, it wasn’t. Sure, I had a plan, but I didn’t have the wood. I also didn’t have a budget to buy wood. It really wasn’t time to do this project yet, but I felt a sense of failure when I saw the unfinished pile of materials. Why? I think because this modern world doesn’t make much space for progress. We want to be DONE. We want to finish. But completion is an illusion. Anything you finish will have to be fixed or changed again at some point. When one project concludes, another rises to take its place. My projects are an extension of my person, and I’m never static. Why should they be?
A few weeks ago, someone on my local swap group offered up a gorgeous piece of furniture that needs some repair. I certainly didn’t have the time to fix it right then, but it was free and the price was right. So I let myself pick it up, knowing that I would get to it one day, and that the research and planning and preparing stages are actually the whole point. The process is what brings joy, not the finishing. Sure, there’s a sense of accomplishment when you wrap up a task that has taken a long time, but if all we work for is the finish, we miss those small moments of joy when sanding and polishing and scouring the internet for replacement parts.
The process is what brings joy, not the finishing.
This is why I love how we teach writing at The Novelry. Our focus is on making happy writers. Not people who are happy to have written, but people who have made the space in their lives to be creative. When you make something slowly and intentionally over time, it nourishes your soul. There is a part to creativity that IS unknown and out of our control, and making space for that magic is exactly what leaves you fulfilled. The work isn’t about word counts. It’s about sinking into that process and loving your own mind and thoughts and dreams so much that you let them roam wild.
Last week, I finished the first raised garden bed on my plan. I still have another to build and I have the wood but I’m letting it sit for now. The window for planting has largely passed, at least until the season tips toward fall, so now I’m back to drafting my book. As a task oriented person, allowing my creativity to wander is not always easy for me, but my art and my soul benefit from it. A goal doesn’t have to be reached to be effective. There is meaning in the work, even when we are in the middle of it.
A goal doesn’t have to be reached to be effective.
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