Filling the Creative Well (Part 2)

As I wrote in Part 1 of this post, I’ve been taking a writing break to “fill the creative well” and ponder my current work-in-progress, which was somewhat stuck at chapter six at the start of the summer. In fact, I didn’t know if I had a viable story idea that I could plot through to the end. So I wrote the first few chapters, took a break, and hoped for the best.

In the meantime, I re-finished our kitchen chairs into works of art with my artist daughter, Paige. (Statement of Truth: She’s the artist. I’m just the base-coat painter.) You can see our first three chairs in Part 1, including the themes cosmos, Aztec, and steampunk. As promised, here are the final three chairs: Doctor Who, floral, and collage.

For all you Doctor Who fans out there, we planned a spinning Tardis (the Doctor’s time machine) within billowing clouds coupled with our favourite quotes written in Gallifreyan (the language used by the Time Lords, displayed using a complex system of interlocking circles, hexagons and lines).

Here’s the front of our Doctor Who chair, including a close up:

Can’t read Gallifreyan? Curious what we wrote? Okay, here it is:

• Front of backrest: “Do what I do. Hold tight and pretend it’s a plan!”
  (The Doctor, Season 7, Christmas Special)
• Lower-left seat:  “Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good!”
  (The Doctor, Season 2, Episode 4)
• Upper-right seat: “Biting’s excellent. It’s like kissing. Only there is a winner.”
  (Idris, Season 6, Episode 4)

Here’s the rear of the same chair:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Gallifreyan quote says: “You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world!” (The Doctor, Season 2, Episode 2).

Next, we created our floral chair, which is the only one that uses the natural wood grain:

 

 

And finally, here’s our collage chair, which includes images of the aftermath of Great Fire in Toronto, some of our favourite pastimes (books, dance, etc.), my family nickname (Karnage), excerpts from “What to Do in Case of an Air Raid” (a funny historical piece I found in a collectibles shop), several dragons (because who doesn’t like dragons), and a lot more.

Here’s a peek at our collage chair:

 

 

Now, we are resting on our chairs, irreverently sitting on works of art, and enjoying the fruits of our labours. And maybe, just maybe, that novel is ready to be written.

The writing process is a quirky thing. It’s somewhat like calming a screaming toddler in the middle of a department store while juggling twelve oranges. You’ve got to keep all the oranges in the air without further upsetting the toddler or getting kicked out by the security guards. Okay, I know. Bad comparison.

What I did discover one day in August was that I suddenly knew how to solve that niggling problem in my work-in-progress. One clear sunny morning while reading an information book for pleasure, an brilliant idea found me, told me how to finish the novel, and created a few exciting new characters in the process.

So I’m feeling that stepping away from my desk and letting my subconscious do the work was a terrific plan. Even though I wasn’t sure it would work. I guess those hours of painting chairs paid off in more ways than one.