Many inexplicable things take place during the writing process. That zone you get into when the story is just flowing out of you when you aren’t even stopping to think of what comes next, for example.
For the past several days, I’ve been doing research for a new short story. It’s a period piece that starts with a historical incident and then goes off in a different direction. I like to get the details right, so I’ve been tracking down illustrations from the period, reading reports and first-person accounts. I made two false starts to the story already, both of them about 500 words long, including the one I wrote this morning. Then, after I was finished for the morning, I saw the light. It came to me out of the blue. I wasn’t even thinking about the story any more, except in some unknown fashion I guess I still was. I grabbed a piece of foolscap and a pen and wrote down a full page of notes, essentially an outline to the opening scene that feels perfect. It makes use of absolutely none of the two false starts, although some elements might get cherry picked when I actually write the scene. And all that research, well, very little of it will get used, either, though if I find myself in need of a little detail that will inform the story, I won’t have to go looking for it. It’s all there, crammed into my head and in the downloaded images.
Sometimes I have to plow ahead to find my way. The path is muddied. I have an idea of what I want to accomplish, but I’m not sure of the proper vehicle or the right trajectory to take. I flounder around, lost, looking for something to latch onto. And then, all of a sudden, there it is. The sky opens and everything becomes clear. I have no idea how that happens or why. I am loath to research it too closely lest I spoil the magic. But I love it when it happens.
In this week’s episode of House, the subplots were way more interesting than the main story. Funniest was Chase’s quest to find out who punked him by posting humiliating photos on his (Facebook) profile. I like continuity stories, so the call back to the wedding reception where he bedded multiple guests was good. And House training Cuddy’s little girl like a dog: inspired.
