...a couple of days ago. It happened while I was driving, just passing the place you can see in the picture below, which makes sense, because I love to drive, even when I'm driving in to work, and because I have my music going, and no one talking; just me with me.
At stoplights, I jotted down phrases and drew lines to connect them so they made sense later. A couple of things I'd been juggling around for a while came crashing together, and I saw a way to do something with them.
(I swear I need a new laptop with a battery that lasts a while - if I drove up and down the miles along the parkland road that runs along the Potomac near our house, I think I could write this novel in pullover places, and imbue it with immediacy. Or I think I could, anyway.)
Trouble is - I have no idea how it ends - I see the scenes, can just about taste them and smell them, they seem that real. The first sentence of the novel came to me this morning, while I was driving alone again. This is how I wrote the best parts of my first novel. Sentences, sometimes several, walked across my thoughts and I'd write them down, catch hold of them before they left me. But I don't know what's gonna end up happening.
Another trouble is - I already had quite a bit of the opening chapter to what I thought was my next novel written. But this one is stomping on me. And I'm gonna write it in fast-forward over the summer. And it's gonna be a short one.
And the biggest trouble is -I haven't really wrapped up the first novel yet - don't know what's happening with it, should be editing it down right now, but I feel a very strong pull to the new, with sentences walking into my brain fully formed and pissed off if I don't write them down. I think it has to be done while it's forceful and immediate.
So...please tell me - has this ever happened to you?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
A surprise of a novel idea walked into my head...
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12 comments:
All the frickin' time. Ain't life grand?
Yeah, strike while the iron's hot. I once had a mini recorder in my car to talk the sentences into so I wouldn't be scrambling to write them down while driving. But I never went back and wrote all that down later. Still have the tapes somewhere (and that was 20+ years ago). Still have that story in my head and I did finally start it - until someone rained on that parade. I will go back to that one evetually.
But at some point, I have had to stop and say 'this book needs some attention'. I think it helps me to be writing one while editing another. Keeps the fun part of writing immediate while I'm slogging through edits. And the book I'm writing now was not on my horizon when I set up my writing goals. Just popped up out of nowhere. A little over 9000 words in now.
This is a great post and reminds me of why it's so great to be alive — that whole Surprise Factor that can so deliciously ruin even the best-laid plans.
So here's mine...
Spend summer hammering WIP into shape using tools supplied by my superlative beta readers, then generate new novel concept from the murky embers of October's misty sprawl and...so then I'm walking round the centre of Nottingham (potential tourists note: shithole) when a couple of characters from an idea I had in the early 90s suddenly strike up a conversation and one of them mutates into an elf. In the short parade of litter and drunkards between Tesco and Help The Downcast & Miserable, my next project landed in my lap (and fell off onto the pavement, of course, as I was perambulating briskly).
I'm itching to get started, but I know I have the thorny problem of finishing what I have first. Grr.
Plus, dearie, you must tell me more of your personal essay idea.
Damn, you two. I'm itching to dig down into what both of you said, and I will, when I get home. Because unfortunately - today is one of those days when I have a 3.5 hour drive down, and back again, to Virginia Beach, to pick up an elderly relative and slog my way through the next week with a visit. Now, lest you think I'm a bitch - let me say in my defense that there are loads of elderly relatives in my life - here and there across the country - that I really love hanging out with. But this one- this one is HARD WORK.
Back later...wine in hand. And if I get too drunk to remember (kidding,but only barely) - Whirl, with the essays, remind me that I want to mention 'blog versus book' to you, will ya?
Sarah- recorder - i agree -tried it, too - but I don't transcribe later- just like you!
I look forward to the day when I have the freedom to drive around and just think about it all. I find my thinking time is most focussed when I'm out walking the dog - when I have nothing to hand to keep note.
My problem isn't coming up with the new ideas - it finishing the old ones. I can't finish something if there's a new idea banging away in my head. Most times I have to just write it down and forget about it - just so I can plod on with the WIP (which is currently 2 WIPs - neither f which are going anywhere)
Roll on summer holidays... time ...that's what I need.
I'm with Sarah - strike while the iron's hot. As much as you can, anyway.
WEll, it's actually good to know we have more that potential novel inside of us. I tend to have ideas, write a (IMHO) pretty good opening paragraph or two, lose confidence, decide I have no business thinking I can write, and goof off on the internet instead. Excuses are my speciality.
Oh, and I hate that feeling when you know you had a great idea, but can no longer remember what it was 'cause you didn't write it down, 'cause you knew it was such a great idea there was no way you'd forget it...
There was a huge accident yesterday, or I was told there was, on I-95 (the interstate that runs from the state of Maine on down through the entire East Coast fo the U.S., ending in Miam, Florida), as I didn't get any closer than 20 miles from it to be stopped dead in traffic, and never saw anything, got off, drove 20 miles through Virginia backroads (luckily, a beautiful drive) with, an aged narcissist in tow, got back in 7 hours or so, rather than the usual 3.5. That, plus the 3.5 going down to pick her up, and the lunch, and color me haf-dead last night - mainly emotionally.
I'm itching to get back to this - I see two threads running through the comments: Jump on something while it's pressing AND jumping from thing to thing keeps you from moving forward sometimes. And I think they're both right, and I think they're both right at the same time sometimes.
And Whirl - I haven't forgotten the essay idea - I've got stuff I wanted to mention to you guys, but I'm now about running out the door to work (with the aged narcissist in the background, speaking loudly to herself, so I can hear her complain about our coffemaker and how she didn't sleep well last night because "...that mattress may be new and queensized, honey, but it's just too soft for my back, it's too soft, see, and my back hurts now, and isn't there anywhere else but the guest room I can sleep?"
Yeah. It's gonna be one helluva week....
Back later thsi afternoon, wine in tow.
Wine in tow is far better than toe in wine.
And that's really all I have to say right now. Sorry, I got nuthin'.
Hey, Pete - toe in wine would certainly not feel the same!
Sorry- I meant to add more to this post or to put an additional post on - but I have been constrained by time and other limitations. Quickly, though, here are two links that are worth looking at re: building a platform for your work (non-fiction and fiction).
http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2007/05/moonrats-guide-to-getting-published.html
AND
http://denniscass.com/2009/04/
(See April 9th post and also follow the prompt to the previosu post, please.)
What I wanted to work up to was - I think some of us are putting pieces of writing on our blogs that would work really well OFF of our blogs - and so, should be taken off and used out in the world.
I've been thinking along the lines of writing a few short stories during the Hey! Agents! Hiatus of Agony, so this would add another string to my creative writing halberd (or something like that). I guess it all boils down to 'what to write' and 'where to send'. I'll keep checking back for further updates between the barrage of sandwiches currently constituting my Fitness Thru Weightlifting exercise regime...
I swear I need a new laptop with a battery that lasts a while
Send me your address. I am sending you a notebook and pen!
I mainly use these
They are blank - no lines - and I love how they look like a paperback novel.
The most recent one, I wrote page numbers in as I scribbled and then when I was home I cross-referenced scenes/content to page numbers to make sure I could find things again.
Hi you all,
This has been one helluva week for having maybe 10 minutes a day to myself, or I'd have done a separate post with more stuff about this idea in the comments.
Hoping that finally, this evening, I'll be able to breathe without interruption for a few hours to get some reading done.
Whirl - I like that post you did about music and writing. I have a playlist of songs that took me 'to the moment' when I was writing my novel - and a song was what brought the ideas together for the second novel.
Sylvia - I know what you mean about loving notebooks. I write in notebooks- jot down ideas (not nice notebooks - junky things I have stuffed in my carryall - maybe nicer ones would bring out the writing?
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