New and unused

We’re in the process of selling our house and I’m excited. Not only is the idea of downsizing a thrill but because it's being shown, I have come to love living in a clean house.

After twelve years it’s amazing just how beat-up, bruised and used the old place looked. I’ve freshened most of the walls and woodwork with paint, scrubbed and cleaned until my nails are nubs. And the place looks great especially with all the snow gone and the lawns and leaves popping green.

I’ve made a few changes inside the house and a few outside so even though we’re on the way out of here, the place seems new. Will I miss the homestead, yes, a lot of wonderful memories here, but I won’t miss the high carrying charges. We have too much room to roam in, I want less.

Up ‘til about a year or so ago I think my writing was very much like living a long time in the same place, relying on the tried and true, the dependable and predictable.  Though proud of what I was turning out, I was in need of freshening up the battered old phrases and ideas that have been stacked in the attic too long. As they say, out with the old and in with unused and new.

Though difficult, change is a good thing. It gets us on unfamiliar roads, looking for a different comfort level. It gets us ahead of the pale and stale old usage.

So, here we go, selling and moving and here I am discovering a new tact.

I will admit though, that one project, a short story I wrote almost thirty years ago, a story one wonderful editor said MUST be a book, is taking on a new and gleaming look and sound, I found my main character’s voice. From word one all are new. It is a rewriter’s dream. The core, as he said, MUST be a book, and so it shall be.

Is the best of what we do all about change or is it about looking at freshened up things differently?

When’s the last time your writing changed?