Tuesday, February 2, 2010

When the Writing Goes Well

I love it when the writing goes well, when the hours fly by and I look up to discover it's already past noon. That's the way it was for me this morning.

Now that I'm nearing the end of my novel-in-progress, the pieces are starting to come together more quickly. This morning I was working on the dialogue between four characters, hearing their conversation as if I were with them in Alicia's sunny living room. The words just started to flow. I didn't bother with dialogue attributes (I'll go back and fill them in later, where necessary). I knew who was speaking by what they said. Besides, I didn't want to interrupt the flow of conversation.

I felt exhilarated by the time I stopped writing, had lunch and went for my usual walk. But the characters didn't stop talking. Their conversation continued in my head. There's still a lot of writing to do, but we need days like this to keep us slogging ahead.

Cheers!

3 comments:

Willow said...

Yes, we DO need those days when everything flows, to make up for the times when writing is like slogging through molasses!

Peggy Dymond Leavey said...

I love that simile, Willow. Obviously, you've had those days too. How is the sequel to your book shaping up?

Willow said...

Thanks for asking--I work slowly, so I'm still in the outlining phase, exploring ideas, backing out of dead ends, and generally scratching my head.