Drawing from the Well
Queries Sent: 1
Total Queries: 15
Rejections: 1
Scenes Arranged: 6
Total Scenes: 237
Finally made some headway yesterday. I struck on some inspiration to get Meibor logically to the Midpoint and started working through it. There’s still some kinks to work out, but the set pieces are there. Hopefully I’ll finish that up today and get into the Midpoint.
Filling the Well
1984: 20%
A Good War: Page 20 of 92
1984 is a plod, but an interesting one. A Good War is heating up fast. I’m so curious to see things from the other side.
Polishing the Well
My wife and I finished Lost last night and WOW what an incredible finish. I’m so glad we took the time to sit down and watch it straight through. I totally get what the phenomenon was and I understand the upset/uproar to an extent. My wife was quick to point out that we binge watched it so we were able to remember a lot of the details far more easily than when the show was on TV so that is part of why things were clearer for us.
Well Chat
Always Be Writing
I’ve talked about inspiration a few times before including how to wrangle your muse and Shiny Object Syndrome. Today, we’re back on the topic, but I want to talk about stoking the flame of your inspiration at all times. Basically, how do you put your brain in a state where you can always be writing?
So let’s start by widening the definition of “writing.” Writing is not merely putting words to paper/screen. Plotting is writing. World building is writing. Drawing character sketches or maps is writing. Thinking about your writing is writing. The thing most non-authors don’t understand or appreciate is that there is so much that goes into a book that cannot be read on the page. Ask any accomplished author (however you define that) and they’ll tell you that literal years go into every work. And I’m not talking about the year, 18 months, or 2 years in actual writing. Most authors have their own mental slush pile of ideas at differing stages of germination. Those take years to grow, prune, and distill into a form that’s even worth writing about.
The “germination” phase is loads of thinking without even plotting. It’s world building and designing systems and interviewing potential characters – all in your mind! Since you’re probably in the process of writing an actual book, much of this happens in your subconscious. That’s right, folks, your brain is chewing on ideas even when you’re not. All hours of the day and night, waking or sleeping, if you’re an author, your brain is trying to author something. It’s like breathing.
So how do you harness that? Downtime. When you’re driving or waiting to pick up your kids at school or at the doctor’s office you’ve got time to let your mind wander. My favorite is while I’m driving because it’s that, music, or an audiobook (and sometimes my Subconscious Chewing drowns the latter two out anyway). Think over scenes you’ve written. What comes next? What do you THINK should come next? What COULD come next? What’s new and exciting? If you know an upcoming scene, how does it connect to your current scene? I ask why constantly and I come up with some cool stuff.
The coolest stuff (and this happened just the other day) is when my subconscious creates a scenario that fills in a gap WAY down the line in the story that I knew existed but had thrown it onto the bridge I’d cross when I got there. That’s because my subconscious, knowing the gap was there, kept trying to fill it. Then I had a much smaller gap to fill and, because our brains are lazy efficient, my brain killed two birds with one stone by filling both gaps with a simple solution. It’s a CRAZY solution that had never occurred to me to even consider, but now I can’t think about anything else.
In closing, open your mind and see where it takes you. Your subconscious can be WAY smarter than your conscious mind so just let it do the good work it was designed for. Give yourself downtime to let it work. And give yourself some leeway to think through problems and plot ideas. Thinking is writing…as long as you eventually get to the page.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG