I'm suspecting that everything I wrote tonight might not make it into the next draft of the novel. It involved an art installation in the backyard of a very rich couple's home, and an enormous fight between the man and his mistress. But I felt the whole timie I was writing this that I was biding time, afraid of the next scene, which I know is going to be a major event in the novel that gets things rolling: a hit-and-run accident during which my main character saves the life of a three-year-old girl.
But here it is, 1:00 a.m., and I have a majorly stressful day at work tomorrow. So I'm going to resist the urge to make it all the way to the hit-and-run and leave that for tomorrow. Undoubtedly I'll have some new ideas on how to approach things when next I sit down.
I see all sorts of great ideas come to my head in the hours that I'm not writing. This is hardly a revelation — he same was once true of my songwdriting as well. The brain seems to continue to work on the puzzles and hang-ups in the story long after the computer has been shut down. I've found that my morning shower seems to be a particularly creative time. For instance, after going to bed last night with the sneaking feeling that I absolutely despised the job my main character just got, I discovered in the shower that the hit-and-run would spell the end of that job for him. Voila — I won't have to keep writing about that.
I'm really feeling the need to complete the outline for this story that I had started back in October. I feel things getting a little out of my control, which is probably great for word count, but isn't going to do much when I have to go back and edit the behemoth. Another reason for the outline: I find that I look forward to the next day's writing when I have a vague idea what I'll be writing about. And since I'm quickly approaching the end of the portion of the outline I created, I may soon be in no-man's-land. I need my outline to stay at least a few chapters ahead of me.
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