Another 5K week on Petra Released, bringing us to here:
That mysterious stranger I mentioned last week turned up, as I thought he might. Ooooo . . . scary.
Here’s something even scarier, at least for me. It’s happened on several occasions over the course of this novel. As I approach the end of a chapter and take a moment to consider the next, I realize . . . I got nothin’. I literally don’t know what’s going to happen in the next chapter.
Now, it’s not like I have no idea where this thing is going on the macro level. But the immediate future? Kinda vague . . . if by “vague,” you mean, “total blank.” I find myself going back to my notes, flipping through pages, scribbling some new thoughts, looking desperately for a clue about the next thousand words.
And yet . . . my muse keeps bailing me out, usually at the very last minute. My writing session yesterday was but the latest example. Here I am, sitting at the computer, ready to go, and I’m still jotting notes, casting about for the angle. And then it came to me out of nowhere–something I hadn’t even considered a possibility until that moment. Suddenly, one of my bad guys had an entirely different agenda than I thought he’d have, and it fits exceedingly well with the rest of the story. The answer was in there all along.
It’s challenging to work this way, yes. And even fun, especially when you make a cool discovery. But I gotta tell ya, it can be scary, too. Sometimes this building-your-wings-on-the-way-down stuff is a bit hair-raising.
But as long as it keeps working out, I suppose I won’t complain too much.
No updates for Write Club.
Onward!
