Tessa McDermid

For the past couple of months, I’ve been working on a new proposal for Everlasting. The ideas were coming, a few with complete scenes unfolding almost as fast as I could type. I was starting to see the characters, could even hear them talk at times. . . but I couldn’t find their conflict.

I kept writing, adding a few pages a day. I had a self-imposed deadline for the proposal — I wanted to send it in before my sons started back to school.

Then ballgames, some work travel, and a short family vacation interfered. I was still writing during all of these events, still keeping a notebook with possibilities but the story wasn’t clicking together. And I wasn’t sure the character names were right.

The family vacation, a few days in the cool Colorado mountains, brought everything into focus. Each morning, I sat on the front porch of the cabin we were renting. Hummingbirds buzzed by my head, on their way to the feeder. The wind rustled in the pine trees that marched up the hillside across from our cabin.

And the ideas began to form their own orderly parade in my mind. I knew how to structure the story, how to pull together the different scenes so they would show the characters in each stage of their lives. And I heard both the hero and heroine speak to me, giving me not only their voices but their names and backgrounds.

I’m not completely done with the proposal and I know I have a ways to go with the rest of the story. But having that time to sort out my ideas, to break away from the every day tug of my life, has really helped. Now, when I’m stuck, I’ll try to pull up that cool mountain air, the pine trees, and the hummingbirds, at least in my mind.

What helps you pull your ideas and your life together, whether you’re a writer or a reader?