I'm disgracefully late posting today. In fact, I forgot it was Friday. That's because I'm at the moment in a new book that I confess I love -- that moment when all things are possible. That moment when I have an idea and then another and suddenly it all seems to fall into place. I have a plot. I have characters. I see connections.
It started last night when I was reading an article in a magazine that happened to be about the modern approach to funerals. The victim in my new book is going to be a funeral director. And suddenly I had a brilliant idea about the first chapter -- the chapter that is always torture because I can't do anything else until I have the first sentence and the first paragraph. The chapter that I write over and over again. But last night, I read the article and I could see it all.
The fact that I suddenly remembered that today is Friday, and my day to post, should tell you that reality intruded. As I was thinking about the new book and seeing all those connections, I remembered all the marketing I must do for the book that is coming out this fall if I am to get to a second book and have readers waiting to read it. I remembered that I have to get started with Twitter and Facebook. Yes, started. I have never done either and now am about to begin. I'm also about to pick up a camera and begin a photo essay of the places in the first book. This from someone who uses disposable cameras when I need to take photos during research. But the photo essay, over several months, seems much easier to do if I think of it as a "writer's photo essay".
So the reality of having "stuff" to do to promote the first book is distracting me from the second. But, for the moment, even being distracted is a minor problem. For I can see the pieces, and I have a plot. And until I'm stuck in the middle, I can imagine that this next book will be easy. That it will almost write itself.
I love this period of self-delusion, and I have come to expect it. It reminds me that I need to dig deeper. I need to keep looking for connections, to let my imagination run wild. I need to allow myself to have crazy ideas and imagine stories that are beyond my ability to tell. Eventually I will be brought low by my inadequacies as a writer. But for now, I can brainstorm. I can give myself a mental "high five" for my own brilliance.
It's going to get hard soon. But right now, I'm having a wonderful time.
5 comments:
Frankie, there has to be some weird connection between us. I thought today was my day. It wasn't. But I was going to grovel over posting so late. You saved me from a hasty poor-worded blog.
Charlotte,
I double-checked to make sure I wasn't feeling guilty on the wrong day -- and saw you posted last Friday :).
I've seen later...
I know all about funerals since my protagonist is an obituary writer .... Frankie - let me know if you need the inside scoop!
Thanks, Hannah! I'm likely to take you up on that. It's get more complicated because my funeral director/victim is in a book set in 2020. I'm trying to figure out what funerals are going to look like in six years. Of course, since my 2020 is in a kind of parallel universe, I could just go for it and make it all up :)
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