I know we’re getting to the middle stretch, the difficult place where you’ve laid your structure, and now you look at those 48 pages of text and wonder what else there is? Well, let me clarify that - that’s what I’M doing right now. I’m kind of stuck. Do I make all of the action take place in two days? One day [I don’t think that’s possible anymore], or is it okay to pull it out for a week or two? I don’t know yet. I got the brainstorm of having all of the characters do free writing so they can tell me what they want me to know. I’ve gotten more valuable information that way. Violet, Bill’s guardian, is actually his twin sister who choose not to incarnate so that she can help him more. Will’s parents were killed [he says it was from a car accident, but I don’t believe him - I don’t know the truth yet].
I had the thought yesterday that Bill was adopted, but that wasn’t quite the Truth. I didn’t say anything. This morning my ‘real’ Bill came downstairs and said, “Hey - in the novel am I adopted?” Now, the amazing part is that I haven’t been sharing that much of my novel writing process with him, so the fact that he picked up on that is quite astounding [albeit not too surprising] that he picked up on that.
I’ve added the Sacred Texts, and sense that I’m going to have to actually WRITE THEM OUT, even if just part of them, and I’m already scared. How in the world am I going to pull THAT one off? Humankind has been searching for that information for eons! So I’ve done the good writerly thing and put it on the backburner. Maybe I’ll do a mondo tai chi/meditation session and it will all come to me. I just have to trust.
I got the talent show dancing scene laid out, but after Bill’s humiliation I don’t think I can jump to the bike race to the old silo without something in between there. I don’t know what yet. But it’s taking shape, like the sun rising. At first you can’t see anything, but you know it’s all got to be there, the whole picture, yet you only see it better a little at a time. You just have to wait and keep writing, keep going. I am feeling the tug of wanting to just give it all up, yet this fierce tenacity keeps driving me to finish the 50,000 words, damnit, and that’s the pervasive energy that I really love about myself. That ability to keep pushing beyond what’s comfortable so I can explore uncharted territory, and believe me - this is ALL uncharted territory, but what I’ve wanted to explore for a long, long time. Even if I don’t discover the gold [but I think I will] at least I will have done it. I will prove to myself that I CAN write a novel, and walking through those fear spaces of the unknown, knowing that you have the strength and fortitude are always growth experiences for me. This I know about myself. It may be the same for others, as well. I can’t say. In the meantime, I just keep writing. 22,056 words as of right now…