Over Christmas I jigsaw puzzled.  Thanks Elizabeth and Roger.

I’ve come to a realization.  That’s how I write.  First I work around the edges.  Maybe I don’t get all the edge pieces in, but most are in place.  Then I fill in the larger structures until I see the picture emerge, more or less.  And last but not least, I add in the small bits, the details.

I’m on the middle section of my current manuscript, mainly.  Spirit Crossing it’s called.  But from time to time a new piece at the edge still finds me and even a depth detail I hadn’t considered.  Like a jigsaw puzzle.

There will be more needed, however.  But when I take a break from my writing and travel in northern BC this summer, I will find them, those small but essential pieces of people and environment, that will make my manuscript-puzzle whole.

Again, like a jigsaw.