Writing was the perfect antidote to last week’s return to chilly bluster when the sun was a stranger but rain wasn’t. It gave me that emotional shot of sunny ‘70s that Mother Nature refused to offer.

With each day at my computer, Janelle began assuming a more defined personality. She had been a two-dimensional character languishing in the pages of her back story. Now, I realized what car she’d drive, what fast food joint she’d frequent (and what she’d order), and what she would carry in her handbag (not purse). With each detail, the reader learns a bit more about how Janelle thinks, what her values are and what she herself is like.

I rearranged paragraph order, revised sentences and sections, threw out the unsatisfactory opening and wrote the lines I should have written to begin with that encapsulates the book’s theme:

“Truth is a matter of perspective.

Reporting for the Chicago Tribune, Janelle Martin found Nietzsche’s oft-paraphrased philosophy to be accurate more often than not. A class at Northwestern University had put a name to the life-lesson she’d learned long ago as a truth-seeker growing up in rural Galesburg, Illinois.”

As always, this likely will not be my final iteration of the opening. I’ve submitted the first 2,500 words or so to my critique group, so other writers will read them with a critical eye and give me their thoughts in a couple of weeks. Their ongoing feedback can only make the book better.

This week promises warmer and sunnier days, but I don’t need the rain to prod me to write. Last week’s work rekindled the fire that only smolders when it’s neglected. It changed “write” from a to-do to a must-do because the call to write is too strong to resist.