Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

Inspiration can hit mid chapter. In my author's zoom meetings you often hear 'my scene took an unexpected twist' which probably sounds bizarre to non-authors. How does a scene go somewhere you didn't imagine? Well I'm here to tell you it does, even for plotters (which two of our number are and it was the plotter and the pantser (me) who had this happen this week).

Maybe it has to do with 'being in the zone' or whatever you like to call it. Authors will know what I mean. Time falls away. The only thing you're aware of it words spilling onto the page and suddenly there it is, something you hadn't thought of until that moment and a lot of times it's just what your story needed (sometimes it isn't but I find writing it out, getting it out of my head, kills that side bar and I can slice it out later.

This week on the fly I decided 'yeah the fantasy-mystery thing isn't flowing, let's try something new.' Another thing in these zoom meetings is at least 3 of us have gotten agents and the publishers are already demanding book 2 before book 1 is even fully edited. So I thought to myself, you're fixing up book 1 now. Maybe you should start book 2 NOW in case you find yourself in this position and you're not stuck crapping out book 2 in a rush (I do wonder if that's half the reason for 'the sophomore blues' in so many book 2s)

Book 2 starts out much darker than I intended (but that's a post for another time) and I have Grace being really rattled. That's when it occurs to me that unlike her three partners in the monster hunting biz, Grace wasn't born into the organization like the others. She's an outsider recruited into it. And a side quest is born. Grace doubting if she's where she belongs can be a decent subplot and give her something more to do (I struggled with her in book one) Sometimes inspiration just goes that way, coming out of nowhere.


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Comments

[spikedluv]

So many times the story goes where it wants to go!

That's awesome about coming up with a story for Grace.

[cornerofmadness]

Yes stories do

thanks