EMILY CORR LEE
As an interior designer for over forty years…
my creative tank was filled interpreting client’s dreams and desires into reality. However, at sixty-five years old, I experienced an inspired dream that prompted me to write the story. Never having written a single creative piece before, fear gripped me, but I was determined to share the story in my dream.
Writing has changed me. I have become an addict, and crafting the story is my drug of choice. While interior design is thrilling, satisfying and gratifying, it does not transport one out of space and time as does writing. Yet I find the similarities are striking. Just as the focal point is the springboard of a designed space, so is the novel’s plot. The ambiance and vibe of that space as it is singularly customized for the client is the novel’s setting and tone. The interplay of fabrics, textures and furnishings that are chosen to create interest and depth are the novel’s characters, personalities, quirks and actions. All the elements must work together to form a cohesive space where one may dwell in calm and quiet reflection or thrive in the energy that propels one to adventure and imagination. And so it is with a novel.
Now, as I dare call myself a writer, I have crafted my debut novel over the last five and a half years. Countless hours spent revising, rewriting and rethinking have led to thousands and thousands of words added only to be deleted. I have come to recognize this is a choice I make every time I sit down with my computer: to seek the perfect word that crafts the desired paragraph that creates the story that moves the reader to keep turning the pages.
I invite you to follow along with me as I am currently pitching to and querying agents in hope of having my novel represented and presented to a publisher, but this writer’s life is indeed a journey filled with potholes and detours. Wherever that journey takes me, I am ready. Are you?