Stairway Renovation/ What’s blocking your progress?
The “problem” I have with these new old stairs is that they are enclosed. Except for the first three steps, then a door, the stair well to my writing room is blocked. I’m enough claustrophobic to know I’d avoid them; I need them open. Dave and Dawson sees that possibility. Then Dawson begins to see more: the original stairs probably were open, and closed in later, most likely during the fuel crisis in the 70s to save heating costs. The result of that is the first three steps have a different balustrade and pickets. The newel posts don’t match either. What’s the story here? Dawson is excited now to take down the wall and see what story this house will tell. It will add light to several places, invite guests to come on up, and return some grace and style that was probably originally there.
I hear authors talking about their writer’s block: “I start out fine, then suddenly, it’s like a door, I can’t get past it. What should I do?”
I can’t tell you what you should do; I can only tell you what I do. I open the door, take down the wall and let the sun shine in! There’s always more story. If you can’t work through the block, go around it. Skip a chapter, pick it up, and go back to it. I prefer to go straight through it, but not everyone is as bold and as hard-headed as I, so you must do it your way. Open the door, take it off its hinges, tear down the wall, move or remove whatever is keeping you from moving ahead. You will always find more story.
When we took down that door and wall in our new old house, we found an enormous story, the discovery that the house was built in 1770. What a story that’s turning into! If we hadn’t torn down the wall and pulled that door down that was blocking our progress, we would never have seen the whole story. Don’t let those so-called writers’ blocks get in the way of your progress. Keep moving.