I believe there are a couple of constants with writers. At least they are truisms with me. The first, of course, being that there are no constants. The second is the fact that a vast majority of us have to have a day job to support ourselves and the last being that inspiration comes from a variety of unsought sources.
When I started writing it was a surprise to me. I never intended … never dreamed.. that I would write stories. I was at my day job, running my store. It was tax week and the store was pretty quiet. I was at my computer.. and the story came. I’m not sure where it came from but it was there. Over the next year the story continued to flow. Now the weave of the story is in my mind. I can see it like a movie, flowing from one scene to the next. It has grown into four books.
In one book I left a dangling thread. It fit when I placed it there but now I need to write a story that ties it back into the weave of the other books. I have been puzzling on that. I know how that thread got there and tying it up isn’t difficult.. but…. I don’t have all the pieces to make the 80,000 words necessary for the book. The mental tapestry is incomplete. This story isn’t jumping out of me but is more thoughtful. .. sort of mulling over the additional scene to the movie in my head.
At the same time a totally separate story came to me. Again parts of it jumped out of me fully formed. Life intervened when my mom died and my story got crowded out of me for a time. I have been thinking on it also.. wanting to change some parts of the plot but not sure how. Inspiration came from a chance news item. Now I’m off and weaving plot threads again.
How does it work for the rest of you out there? Since we are all snowflakes.. totally different from each other, I’ll bet there are any number of variations on how the creative process has worked for you. Share. I’d love to hear!
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