Many years ago, before I knew much about medicine and doctors and such, a good friend of mine told me about this miracle chiropractor she had been seeing.
"I don't know how she does it," Beth said, "but this guy can just . . . very gently . . ." as she demonstrated by placing a hand on my neck, and seeming almost to tentatively squeeze it, ". . . move something. And all of a sudden, it's like he has restored the bloodflow to that part of my body. I feel this sense of freedom, of things opening up. It's the closest thing to a miracle I've experienced at a doctor's office."
In the shower this morning, I was thinking about how stuck I've been in my story, mired in the relationship between my two main characters. And then I realized something, and made a simple decision: I'd leave that chapter unfinished and simply move ahead to the next chapter. Which, according to the outline, involves a flashback. Not just any flashback: it's the one where Walt spills the beans.
And let me tell you: that one, simple, gentle decision has completely freed my mind, my fingers, my muse. Because tonight, when I finally sat down to write (sadly, much later than I had hoped), those words came tumbling out like . . . like Jasmati rice out of the bulk dispenser at Whole Foods!
Alright, but the words I was writing were better than that crap simile. Trust me.
Anyway, it's been a fun night! And the best part is that I'm stopping with so much more to go! I could have easily broken 28,000 tonight if I wasn't still recovering from the cold, and if I knew I needed to conserve a little strength for the weekend and the writing to be done then.
But the good thing is that I've left myself right in the middle of this fun scene, and I get to continue it tomorrow! So I should have another banner day tomorrow night.
Halle-friggin'-lujah! I know I'm not out of the woods, by any means — I still have many thorny issues to grapple with. But it is such a relief to experience that sense of "typing on air" after several days of typing with mini-dumbbells duct-taped to each finger.
5 comments:
Wow, my neighbor is a novelist, I'm impressed - seriously! Just found this blog again and congrats on being a part of NaNoWriMo, it sounds like a great idea! I confess I spent too much time at work reading through the NaNoWriMo website forums today- they are so fascinating. My favorite is the Character and Plot Realism q&a: Death by Electric Fence? Turkish Work Schedules? Effects of Jumping in Very Cold Water?
GOOD LUCK!
former blogger,
fellow Evanstonian,
Jennifer
Honestly, I don't understand how anyone has the time to do research when the goal is 50K. I have tagged a TON of material in my own novel that I need to come back to and learn about (What cancers kill the quickest? What is an emergency room's typical treatment for concussion? How much control does an art gallery wield when installing a purchased piece of art on the premises of the buyer? How do ultra-conservative Christians reconcile the pagan part of Christmas with their celebration of the less-worldly birth of Jesus Christ?), and I'll probably be using that research forum to get help from others in that quest. But I can't imagine doing that for one minute right now!
Jennifer, it's so great to see you again! Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. Are you ever gonna come back and blog again?
I might!
If you mean why is Christmas on Dec. 25 and the argument about that being a pagan holiday first some ultraconservatives do disagree with that: Here's a link
http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v
Oh, if you mean what about christmas trees or yule logs or stuff like that I'm not sure. I think christmas trees started in Germany?
Pancreatic cancer kills very, very quickly. My brother in law went into the hospital with some mild complaints one night, was told he had pancreatic cancer and died two or three days later. Who knows how long he actually had it, but I think it would be a good type of cancer to use if you need to kill off a character quick like that because treatment does not help very much. A friend of my husband's also died from it fairly quckly (few months).
Hope that is mildly helpful.
I feel dirty saying this (and perhaps this means that I don't have what it takes to be a true novelist), but: Thanks for the cancer information. I'll research it some and see if it'll fit the bill. (But probably not 'til December.)
And the pagan Christmas question: Thanks for the link, but my question is more along the lines of: How do (some) conservative Christian parents claim on one hand that this holiday is about the birth of Christ, while on the other hand they focus so much on the "Santa Claus"/materialistic qualities of the holiday?
So link THAT! Ha!
http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2006/006/10.32.html
I think that some very fundamentalist Christians, the same ones who don't celebrate Halloween, wouldn't do the "Santa" part of Xmas either. I also think some mainstream evangelicals do try to emphasize the St. Nicholas aspect more or the whole Spirit of Giving thing more. (see the link). But I suppose others just mush it all together somehow. It was pretty mushed together for me growing up, and we were/are more "mainstream liberal/progressive" Christians (I hate labels, but hopefully you know what I mean.)
(Personally, I'd like to emphasize the St. Nick aspect in our family as Brigid gets older, but I don't know how to explain it: Nicholas was a bishop in Turkey in the 4th century and he's a saint who lives with God now except he has a workshop at the North Pole and elves who help him???? Claus is his last name???)
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