Ximena and I try to eat at home instead of going out and spending money in a restaurant. Nonetheless, tonight I suggested McMenimins, just so we could sit by the river. It was a beautiful day.

We got our table by the river and we didn't have to wait since we beat rush hour. The sunlight was just right to present the river in jade green. It was just like looking at the pacific ocean at certain times of day, the quality of sunlight turns it green.

Lovely. Although in retrospect maybe I should have been appalled that the Willamette River was green.

Nah. It was still a lovely moment.

*************************************

Things have been clicking along with the novel. And I think I put my finger on something that was stopping me. It's the whole first three chapters (or fifty pages) of a novel a writer sends to an editor. I had been tying myself in mental knots, wondering if I was going to get everything that I wanted to get in the first three chapters. Not that I've just started writing the novel--I'm near the climax of the story--but I've been getting back in touch with the novel's characters by doing some shaping of those early chapters.

Now here's the key thing: once I gave up the worry and trusted my subconcious with those three chapters, plot points and resolutions for later in the novel came to mind.

Getting this novel done no longer seems as daunting.

Those first three chapters will have what the story requires. Form follows content.

It seems so obvious now! To finish the novel I just had to stop forcing it an unnatural shape like trying to make my head fit in a shoe.

Okay. I might be a little too excited. After all, I'm not finished with the novel yet. But I really do feel better about the whole thing.