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You might be wondering how Frankenstein, Sky diving and writing connect. I will let the words of Winston Churchill put this picture together for you.

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public. -Winston Churchill

I love this quote! I keep it by my computer and read it often. His words resonate deep within me and perhaps they do with you. Mr. Churchill clearly understood what it meant to be a writer. We begin excited, full of anticipation, adrenaline and hope flying high. We sit down at our computer, begin to pour our genius onto the page. We return to our chair day after day, affectionately giving it our attention. Sneaking off to add a few more words, tenderly caressing each line, delighting in each new discovery we make as we write. We are in loving. And then, something changes. In us. On the page. And our pleasure becomes our pain. Our adventure becomes confining, demanding and laden with guilt. Why haven’t we spent more time with it? Why don’t we bring something new to the story? Why don’t we feel the same way we did just a short while ago? We return, drained and fearful of what may or may not happen on the page. We quake at the sight of the blank screen and beg for enlightenment, inspiration, hope but all too often the foul beast is silent, sullen and distant. The blank page beats us down hammering us with its words – You are not good enough! You’ll never finish this! You haven’t got the talent, the time or the creativity! Face it, you are not worthy of being called an author! We take its abuse and we keep coming back. Finally, the words the blank page screams at us no longer have an effect. We become resolved to this new status, this new condition and limp along, covered with wounds and gashes, writing to the end.Then, the clouds break, the sun shines down on our bent, ragged form and the shackles of our master fall from our wrists and we are free! The final period on the final sentence of our story pierces, like a knife, through the heart of our monster killing it and setting us free….That is until the next monster comes along and takes hold of our mind, body and soul!

We are monster slayers , you and I. I wish you many monsters slayings and a great many moments of jubilation each time you are freed from its grip!

Until the next time!