Friday, February 2, 2007

The occasional mental kick

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Over on his blog, Neil Gaiman's trying to play a wee practical joke on Penn & Teller fan, m'self.

I was going to write a little bit about 'quiet listening' as a part of the writing process. Then I realized Stephen King said it better here.

Yes, I'm finally getting comfortable with the link-thingy. First it was the Bronze Age, then everyone was going over to iron. Now I have to learn hyperlinks...

The book's trundling along. It's all about the subplots at the moment. I'm getting a clearer and clearer image of where the book ends up, so now the challenge is getting it where it's going. Mostly I listen. Sometimes I have to prod myself a bit.

Last night, I couldn't think of how the next scene would shape up. Mostly I'll go into a scene with a sense of the characters involved, the conflict/tension between them, or at least their different goals so I can found out how that shapes the conflict, but last night I just couldn't see it. I had an odd picture in my head and one sentence.

One mental kick in the ass later, I wrote that sentence. Then the next. And the one after that.

1200 words (I'm saving the extra 200 as a safety cushion in case I need it today) and four lean scenes later, I could have written heaps more. Stupid sleep...

2 comments:

RK Sterling said...

...last night I just couldn't see it. I had an odd picture in my head and one sentence.

Sigh...I know that feeling. I think King summed it up well (speaking of the "muse")

Some days it only comes as far as the edge of the clearing, relieves itself and disappears again.


Thanks for the links, and glad you were able to kick-start the writing again.

Charles Gramlich said...

The muse is a little critter in the bushes? Could be. Could be.