This is, I guess, really a continuation of the "process" discussion. My first drafts are always so influenced by the reading and on-the-ground research I do while writing. The smallest thing can steer a book off on a new course. While reading for a novel I've been suddenly steered to write about hair salons and restored muscle cars. While walking a neighborhood in Minneapolis once to "get it right" for a book, I spotted two seventy-something women kissing passionately and that took the story in a new, important direction. The other day I was out walking and a grouse burst out of the snow. I turned around and headed home, as it was clear I had just been handed something I needed for a scene that was eluding me.
Producing pages in any fashion possible is crucial for that first draft, but it's just as important to every now and then look away from the story.
MQ
I love this. When I'm writing well, I have this sense of a veil being lifted and everything that comes in shapes the story. I'm so conscious that everything I read and experience finds it way into the developing narrative, and get anxious I'm not doing enough, or I'm going to miss something cool.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this reminder, Marsha and Anne. I've forgotten that feeling of being "in" a book and therefore in the world. Must go write myself there.
ReplyDeleteI'm off on an inspirational/fact-finding setting excursion today. Thanks, Marsha.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are in the zone, it seems like everything is fodder for the meal and can make its way into your novel in surprising ways. That serendipity and uncovering an amazing factoid in NF are my favorite parts of writing.
ReplyDeleteWow! Seems like a lot of the writing process is about being fully present in the moment, and then fully present in the writing.
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