I’m trying something new as I write.

Currently, I’m working on a manuscript I’m calling TO HAVE BEEN RICH. When I say it’s an exploration of family and what it means to grow into oneself, I’m using the word “exploration” in more ways than one.

It’s an exploration thematically, yes, but it’s also been a highly exploratory process to write the manuscript itself. Ordinarily, I write in a very linear fashion. Chapter one is written before chapter two, ad infinitum (or at least, you know, ad “the end”).

For TO HAVE BEEN RICH, however, I find myself writing a snippet of a chapter here, a piece of another there, and then I leave notes sprinkled in between about what, later, I might do to fill in the gaps.

It’s taken a few days of adjustment to this new-to-me method, but I have, so far, found it an absolute joy to really embody the essence of the word “explore” as I write.

The opening line of TO HAVE BEEN RICH may be “It was over the first time they tried,” but, for me, I will keep trying to write this way, embracing the unending journey of growth.

What are you doing to bring joy into your creative process?