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!

On Doing Revisions

Whenever I'm working at revisions, which is the stage I'm at with my latest novel, it often happens that I cut the very bits I thought were so brilliant when I first wrote them--the most clever lines of dialogue, the most original piece of narrative.


But when I first wrote them, all those months ago, I had no idea where this story was going, nor how that character would develop. How can that character speak those words, given what I know about him now?


Sometimes it has to do with theme. After the novel is finished, I will make changes to reinforce its theme. And the theme only reveals itself after many drafts.


So, if that brilliant bit of writing no longer fits, out it goes.


Funny how that happens. But it's all right. Those words were all part of the process.


It was my thinking "hey, this is pretty good stuff," that kept me writing. And that's what this is all about, isn't it.


Write on.

We'll talk later.



Peggy