Leaping into a new pool

Dear Wordswimmers:

You know that feeling when you're swimming in one direction and after a while you need to find a new direction to swim in?

That happened recently when I received a fountain pen from my cousin and I switched from using gel pens to writing with a fountain pen, and suddenly it was if I was swimming in a new direction and a whole new world opened up.

The switch to a fountain pen led unexpectedly to the discovery of different kinds of journals, and I discovered how different it felt to write on quality paper in new journals like the ones that I bought from one of the many Japanese companies that produce fine journals. (Midori journals are my favorite.)

Using a fountain pen and a new journal transformed the way I feel about writing in ways that I could never have imagined.

And now, with recent changes to Blogger, which is eliminating email subscriptions, I feel the need to explore a new direction yet again. 

I know it can be challenging to try something new--it takes a leap of faith, doesn't it?--but I know it also can be liberating. 

Anyway, I've decided to swim in a new direction and leap into a different pool. 

Beginning on Sunday, July 4th, I'll share my wordswimmer posts on Substack (free for readers), and we'll see what happens.

Who knows? Maybe I'll discover something about the writing process that I'd never known before. Or maybe I'll meet writers who I never would have met if I hadn't switched directions.

I'll still planning to post thoughts and musings about writing and books here, so you don't have to swim in a new direction if you find the water here to your liking. (I happen to love swimming here and wouldn't go elsewhere, except for the email changes.)

So, if you happen to find yourself, like me, wanting to swim in a new direction, you might enjoy checking out my wordswimmer newsletter on Substack, especially since it'll come as an email straight to your email inbox.

Whether you stay here or take the leap with me, I hope wherever you decide to dive in that you'll discover a new way of understanding the writing process.

Here's the link if you feel like swimming over: https://bruceblack.substack.com

I'm looking forward to seeing you in the pool (here or there) sometime soon.

Take care, and keep writing!

Bruce

Gifts from the Sea

On a sweltering Sunday morning at the end of July, we drove to the beach and met friends who had planted a large, rainbow-colored umbrella near the water. After spreading our blankets out on the sand near them, we waded together into the tepid blue water of the Gulf.

The water was so warm that you couldn’t tell the difference between the temperature of your skin and the water. A few other bathers were splashing in the water, but the beach wasn’t crowded yet. By noon it would fill with thousands of bathers squeezed together, blanket touching blanket, umbrellas sprouting like colorful flowers.

We waded into the shallow surf past the sharp-edged shells and rocks to a place where the water was waist-high and we could lift our feet off the bottom and float easily on our backs as the gentle waves of the Gulf rocked us back and forth.

I watched one of our friends swim south, parallel to the shoreline, her arms flashing against the turquoise of the sea. A quarter-mile away, she made a wide turn and began to swim back toward us.

Off to our right, I noticed a middle-aged man and young woman standing on surfboards and using long-handled paddles to propel the boards toward shore. The Gulf was so calm that morning that the surface reflected the edge of each paddle as it dipped into the water sending glittering droplets in circles  around them.

And then out of the water emerged a sight that I hadn’t expected—a large gray flipper, a triangular shaped fin, followed by a sleek and shiny silver body.

A few yards away one of the other bathers shouted: “Shark!”

But it wasn’t a shark.  It was a dolphin, and it appeared to be playing with the paddle-boarders, weaving between them, crossing trails that they had left behind in the water as they paddled toward shore.

Slowly, in ever-widening circles, the dolphin came within a few feet of us, teasing the paddle-boarders in the hope, perhaps, that they’d follow in a game of tag or hide-and-seek.

Its large, sleek body gleamed in the sunlight, magical and mysterious, part of a far-away place hidden deep beneath the surface. The sight was like a gift from the sea offered to us unexpectedly on this tranquil Sunday morning.

One moment the dolphin was gliding smoothly along the surface of the water, the next, as in a dream, I blinked and it dipped under the surface and was gone.

Gifts from the sea--these kinds of magical moments--come upon us without warning and deepen our experience of life, just as they can deepen our character’s experience of life in our stories.

Do you recall the last magical moment that occurred in your life? What magical moments have you noticed in your own stories or in those stories that are your favorites?

Think about how such gifts from the sea contain the power to change your view of yourself and your understanding of life. Then spend a few minutes writing about a magical moment in your life and how it may have influenced you.

Now think of a magical moment in the life of your character—or characters—and begin writing about how that gift from the sea changed him or her.