Getting There

It’s been a busy week. Worked at the library four days, performed three nights. In between and during, I worked on the manuscript that is suddenly and gloriously no longer pesky, but promising. Since establishing and solving my core problem my brain has been buzzing. During downtime at the library I freewrote my heroine’s backstory in a little pink notebook. Then I came home and worked up an actual timeline interspersing that background and key plot points. I also made notes about the characters’ emotions. The brain continued to buzz.

As much as I itched to go back into the manuscript and revise, I lacked concentrated time. Plus, I refused to tinker with the story any more until I clicked at least 99% with my heroine. Yes, I should have done this kind of work extensively before ever starting the book, but my process is bass-ackward. Always has been, only it’s never taken this long to right itself and make sense.

But it’s okay. It’s all good. After spending four days with my heroine immersed in a heart-to-heart, we are at last, emotionally connected. I get her now. I feel her. Last night I took my laptop to my emcee gig (you know, the behind-the-scenes gig where I announce a winner every ten minutes) and typed away for six hours. The revisions were slight, but essential. I simplified the plot, gave the heroine depth, and suddenly everything made sense. Emily makes sense. To me anyway. Seth is baffled by the woman. She intrigues him and that’s going to get him in a whole lot of trouble. Their brains are buzzing along with mine. That’s when I know I’m in the zone, when the characters come alive and take over. So I took the long way round. At least I'm getting there. Yes!

"There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." — W Somerset Maugham