KNIT ONE, PEARL TWO

Two days ago, I sat down to write the fifth and final visitation of the ghost girl, as she attempts to guide her earthly boyfriend toward her killers. The good news is that it went very well: it was engaging (at least to me), deepened the relationship between the characters, and employed a fairly creative and artistic use of language (syntax, vocab, tone, etc.).

On the other hand, the scene went in a slightly different direction than I was planning and it ended much sooner than I was anticipating. But I didn't really want to change it because I liked it. The problem, however, was that I knew what was coming next and what this scene needed to do to connect me to the next section, but what I had written hadn't done that. So I looked at my outline (which was no help) and I thought and thought: how, I wondered, am I going to get from what I wrote that I didn't want to change to where I needed to go? After much thought, I realized I did need another short scene to follow in that chapter. At first, I was only able to generate a few scene ideas that might be covered in a way that could make that connection. I was concerned though that, being so close to the climax and the end of the book, that I might be sacrificing pace.

I went home for the day and, as usual, percolated subconsciously on what I would be writing the next morning. I had a few more ideas before arriving at school the next morning at my usual time, but still hadn't come up with any solid answers. I still wasn't completely sure what direction to go in as I walked across the campus.

Then, as if by magic, right as I was arriving at my classroom door, the entire structure of the scene knitting together several issues, popped in my head completely spontaneously. Usually I don't like scenes that designed to be entirely utilitarian, but this one seemed fully formed and virtually seamless. I sat down and wrote that bad boy during my thirty minute writing time that morning and it turned out pretty well.

The moral?

You never where or when inspiration will (or won't) strike and sometimes writing answers come--if they come at all--at the last possible moment.