Go With It

Today, I finished writing a new chapter for my novel, which I thought I'd finished writing new chapters for well over a year ago.  I started work on the new chapter yesterday and would have liked to finish it then, because the writing was going well and I was in the right frame of mind, except time ran out.  After struggling a little today to get back on track (which often happens under those circumstances), I finally found my momentum and got the job done.  Whew!  And coming to the conclusion of this first draft felt good too, as it almost always does.  What a sense of accomplishment.

This chapter was loosely based on something that happened to me many years ago.  Going into the writing, I knew what highlights I needed to include, but I didn't know all the details on how to get there, or how to piece them all together.  I admit, when I sat down to write, I didn't do my usual preparation–that is, I didn't plan out everything, knowing exactly how I'd get from Point A to Point B.  I thought I knew enough about what was going on to get where I needed to go.

Well, at a point, I discovered I was lost.  I came to the end of something I knew worked, or I wanted to include, and then…nothing.  Nothing at all.  I sat for a while and looked over what I had.  I read the lead-in numerous times, and still nothing came to me.  I began to regret not planning better.  Was this confirmation that I should have known more about what I needed to do before I sat down to write?  Maybe.  But I wasn't ready to give up, not yet.  All good things come to those who are patient–and don't panic. 

Then something came to me, the next line, and I got it down.  Okay, so I didn't like it completely, but it was something, right?  Then a better version of it came to me, and I got that down.  From there, another line suggested itself.  And then another one.  This kept up for a while, until I got stuck again.  Until I had to repeat the process all over, of sitting back, thinking, rereading what I already had.

Then another line came to me, and another one, and, finally, I realized what direction I was going in.  Of course, why hadn't I seen it before.  It felt so right.  It tied in nicely with something I'd written much earlier in the chapter, making that theme come full circle, and all of it made so much sense.

This happened several times until I saw the end ahead of me.  All the pieces fit together.  When I thought about what I'd captured, not only did they make sense, but they allowed me to understand the characters better, and the situation they were in.  It all felt right.  And I knew I'd be able to use it, or some form of it, anyway.

So the lesson today is this:  You don't necessarily have plan out everything before you sit down to write.  But you do have to leave yourself open to the possibilities of what comes to you while you write.  Don't second guess yourself.  When you come up with an idea, go with it.  It may not be the one you end up using, but it may lead to something else.  Which may lead to something else.  And, before you know it, you've got a full first draft done, which is a lot more than you had before, and which you can now use, over and over again, to mold into what your chapter is meant to be.