Today, my husband and I are making the three-hour drive to Cannon Beach, Oregon. This is the annual pilgrimage we look forward to all year long, the few days spent in paradise with our extended family.
Most years, we visit the brewery and each of the several coffee roasters and sit for long hours, enjoying both the view and la vita dolce. This year we plan to do more than window-shop in the numerous art galleries. We have a wall in our new apartment that needs art. Of course, we will spend time in the local bookstores.
On Hemlock, the main street in town, tourists can find a fabulous wine shop, my all-time favorite bakery, and an old-fashioned candy factory—yum! We might go to a play at the Coaster Theater, and for sure, we will have at least one pizza night.
On years when we have grandchildren visiting, the most beloved store sits just around the corner from our condo – Geppetto’s. This small but magical place is every child’s favorite toy store. I can’t walk past it without stopping in. This store has a large stock of various board games and puzzles to keep everyone busy when the weather is more like fall than summer.
The weather is often cold and wet here, and while we hope for sunshine, we’re prepared for cold and rain. We who vacation on the coasts of Oregon and Washington expect at least one day of darkness, fog, or rain. After all, we are on the eastern rim of the Northern Pacific, and the weather blows in with all its force.
I love the view from the porch of our rented condo, a place we come back to year after year. Tillamook Head is just off to the north. Only a mile straight out to sea, Terrible Tilly rests atop a sea stack of basalt. She is the notorious Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, a stalwart beacon with a long history of strife and tragedy.
Although long closed to the public, she still stands proud, despite being battered and bruised. Her continued existence is a testament to the quality of construction, as Tilly is much stouter than the rock she was built upon.
About Terrible Tilly, from Wikipedia:
In September 1879, a third survey was ordered, this time headed by John Trewavas, whose experience included the Wolf Rock lighthouse in England. Trewavas was overtaken by large swells and was swept into the sea while attempting a landing, and his body was never recovered. His replacement, Charles A. Ballantyne, had a difficult assignment recruiting workers due to the widespread negative reaction to Trewavas’ death, and a general desire by the public to end the project. Ballantyne was eventually able to secure a group of quarrymen who knew nothing of the tragedy, and was able to resume work on the rock. Transportation to and from the rock involved the use of a derrick line attached with a breeches buoy, and in May 1880, they were able to completely blast the top of the rock to allow the construction of the lighthouse’s foundation.
On October 21, 1934, the original lens was destroyed by a large storm that also leveled parts of the tower railing and greatly damaged the landing platform. Winds had reached 109 miles per hour (175 km/h), launching boulders and debris into the tower, damaging the lantern room and destroying the lens. The derrick and phone lines were destroyed as well. After the storm subsided, communication with the lighthouse was severed until keeper Henry Jenkins built a makeshift radio from the damaged foghorn and telephone to alert officials.
The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1957 and replaced with a whistle buoy, having become the most expensive U.S. lighthouse to operate. During the next twenty years, the lighthouse changed ownership several times; in 1980 a group of realtors purchased the lighthouse and created the Eternity at Sea Columbarium, which opened in June of that year. After interring about 30 urns, the columbarium‘s license was revoked in 1999 by the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board and was rejected upon reapplication in 2005.
Access to the lighthouse is severely limited, with a helicopter landing the only practical way to access the rock, and it is off-limits even to the owners during the seabird nesting season. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and is part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. [1]
I will spend a lot of time on the porch, thinking, writing, and looking out to sea at my lighthouse friend. I know there will be at least two days of glorious skies, a shade of blue impossible to adequately describe.
Despite its name, the many moods of the Pacific Ocean are anything but peaceful. It is a wild, beautiful thing and is never the same two days running. The waves crashing against the sea stacks at Tillamook Head and the cries of the sea birds combine with the wind, sounds that clear my mind, making it easier to picture what I want to write.
Over the years, I have taken some exceptional photographs of the many wonders along this stretch of Oregon’s coast. I have also taken a million others that were not so good, but they remind us why, like the sea birds we love so much, we return every year. The image of Haystack rock below is from Wikipedia.
Each year I watch the everchanging weather as it blows in, imagining stories about the pelicans and other seabirds who hang out on the sandbar opposite our condo.
Greg and I are drawn to places near water, especially the ocean. This year, Parkinson’s won’t keep him from having a good time. We have a new beach walker with fat tires to help him get down to the waves. Since 2020, when he fell into the sea and was rescued by a group of women, he hasn’t been able to roam the beach.
When we see our avian friends returning to Haystack Rock and the other sea stacks along this beach, we are both stricken with wonder, the stark realization of our beautiful world. When our short vacation ends, we will carry that feeling of wonder home.
And when NaNoWriMo arrives in the dark, rainy depths of a Northwestern November, I will have this slice of summer to warm and inspire me.
Credits and Attributions:
Image: Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, © Connie J. Jasperson 2022
All other images used in this post are courtesy of Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, “Haystack Rock,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Haystack_Rock&oldid=1162829510 (accessed July 3, 2023).
[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Tillamook Rock Light,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tillamook_Rock_Light&oldid=1140232117 (accessed July 3, 2023).
One of my favorite authors writes great storylines and creates wonderful characters. Unfortunately, the quality of his work has deteriorated over the last decade. It’s clear that he has succumbed to the pressure from his publisher, as he is putting out four or more books a year.
This frequently happens to me in a first draft, but whoever is editing for him is letting it slide, as it pads the word count, making his books novel-length. I suspect they don’t have time to do any significant revisions.
When we lay down the first draft, the story emerges from our imagination and falls onto the paper (or keyboard). Even with an outline, the story forms in our heads as we write it. While we think it is perfect as is, it probably isn’t.
Inadvertent repetition causes the story arc to dip. It takes us backward rather than forward. In my work, I have discovered that the second version of that idea is usually better than the first.
You see things from a different angle when you start reading the chapter from the end and work your way toward the beginning. It’s amazing how many bloopers show up when you do this, even though you have already read it aloud. When you read it aloud you were going the direction you always go, the way you know so well. The mind tricks us, and we read what should be there instead of what is.
Here are a few things that stand out when I do this:
If you have the resource of a good writing group, you are a bit ahead of the game. I suggest you run each revised chapter by your group and listen to what they say. Some of what you hear won’t be useful, but much will be.
I am fortunate to have excellent friends willing to do this for me. Their suggestions are thoughtful and spot-on.
In my work, the suggestions offered by the beta reader (first reader) guide and speed up the revision process. My editor can focus on doing her job without being distracted by significant issues that should have been caught early on.
Characters: Is the point of view character (protagonist) clear? Did you understand what they were feeling? Were they likable? Did you identify with and care about them? Were there various character types, or did they all seem the same? Were their emotions and motivations clear and relatable?
Editing is a process unto itself and is the final stage of making revisions. The editor goes over the manuscript line-by-line, pointing out areas that need attention: awkward phrasings, grammatical errors, missing quotation marks—many things that make the manuscript unreadable. Sometimes, major structural issues will need to be addressed. Straightening out all the kinks may take more than one trip through a manuscript.
An editor is not the author. They can only suggest remedies, but ultimately all changes must be approved and implemented by the author.
A reader won’t be familiar with it and will notice what we have overlooked.
When observed by others, a person who is daydreaming appears lazy. Mind-wandering has no obvious purpose, but it is critical for creativity. Every groundbreaking discovery in science, every great invention we enjoy today—all were inspired by ideas that came to a person while thinking about something else or when they were mind-wandering.
My oldest daughter, looking at our dinner, a casserole of beans with cornbread baked on top like a cobbler: “What the heck is that?”
Perception is in the eye of the beholder. Observation and thought are seeds that inspire extrapolation, leading the viewer to come away with new ideas. When I see the story captured in a single scene by an artist, my mind always surmises more than the painting shows. I see the picture as depicting the middle of the story and imagine what came before and what happened next. Unintentionally, I put a personal spin on my interpretation, and ideas are born. I don’t mean to, but everyone does.
This means that daydreaming is actually good for you. It boosts the brain, making our thought process more effective. Letting the mind wander allows a kind of ‘default neural network’ to engage when our brain is at wakeful rest, as in meditation, rather than actively focusing on the outside world. When we daydream, our brains can process tasks more effectively.
You could be watching the birds, as my husband and I often do. Or maybe you’re perusing the display in a local art gallery or listening to music. I love all genres of music, but for writing I often find inspiration in powerhouse classical pieces such as Orff’s cantata, 
Today, however, I plan a long walk along the beach.
I have no trouble selling my friends’ books – I’ve read them all and love them, and love selling them. Maybe I can sell their books because I’m not emotionally invested in their creation, but I am invested as a reader.
Next week on this blog we will talk about the creative process and the importance of mind-wandering. We’ll also talk about why it is important to beta read for your fellow writers, and how to be a good reader, one who gives positive feedback and offers constructive suggestions.
I have “pantsed it” occasionally, which can be liberating but for me, there always comes a point where I realize my manuscript has gone way off track and is no longer fun to write. Then I must return to the point where the story stopped working and make an outline.
The first tool is a sense of balance. Every published novel has entire sections that were cut or rewritten at least once before it got to the editing stage.
At first, the page is only a list of headings that detail the events I must write for each chapter. I know what end I have to arrive at. But the chapter headings are pulled out of the ether, accompanied by the howling of demons as I force my plot to take shape:
Don’t be afraid to rewrite what isn’t working. Save everything you cut because I guarantee you will want to reuse some of that prose later at a place where it makes more sense.
Some novels are character-driven, others are event-driven, but all follow an arc. I’m a poet, and while I read in every genre, I seek out literary fantasy, novels with a character-driven plot. These are works by authors like 
And the prose … words with impact, words combined with other words, set down in such a way that I feel silly even thinking I can write such works. Thankfully, my editor weeds out pretentious hyperbole and slaps me back to reality.
This part of the novel is often difficult for me to get right. The protagonist must be put through a personal crisis. Their inner world must be shaken to the foundations.
This emotional low point is necessary for our characters’ personal arcs. It is the place where they are forced to face their weaknesses and rebuild themselves. They must discover they are stronger than they ever knew.
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 
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