Someone once told me inspiration always comes unannounced. That one cannot schedule when to allow creativity to take over. It’s not a switch I can turn on at my leisure or when it is most convenient to me. Being that I work (in an office) fulltime, it would be most convenient for me. Alas, that is not the case.
As I walked away from this novel writing a second time, I allowed my mind to stop thinking about the story; stop figuring out how events will unfold or what’s the story behind a motive. And now, I try to schedule time to work on the novel – to allow my mind to get back in that world. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, the mind doesn’t work that way – well, at least mine doesn’t. As I started off saying in this post, ‘inspiration always comes unannounced’. In fact, a lot of times, new ideas come to me when I’m not using my “work brain” or strategic side of the brain: while I’m laying in bed trying to fall asleep, testing out a recipe I found online or driving. Recently, I was out having a cocktail with friends and found myself jotting notes on a napkin (see photo). I can’t complain, though. At least fresh ideas are still coming to me.
So, what stage am I at now? I have my new notes/ideas in addition to more feedback from one of my second beta-readers. I’m slowly reviewing them with the intent to focus on organizing my plot line – rearranging the order my events will unfold and backstories would be revealed. I feel good about this. I know I have all the elements of my story; I just have to organize them in a way that works best to impact and fully engage my potential readers. (Or entice agents/publishers to take me on!)
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