Epiphanies
As a writer, there is nothing better than that "aha!" moment when everything falls into place. You can plug away at a book, hitting all the plot points, having a vague idea of where you're going, and then one day--BAM!--the light bulb turns on and the road ahead is suddenly clear.
I had one of those moments yesterday with my current WIP, Lucid. I had reached the climatic confrontation section, the final 1/3 of the book, got my hero up to his ass in alligators, and while I had an idea of what needed to happen to get him out, I hadn't really come up with that one, final twist of the blade that would make the reader go, "Wow, I didn't see that one coming."
My college mentor once told me never put anything in a story you didn't intend to use, regardless of how insignificant or random it might be. If you're going to bother writing it, it must have a purpose. It's good advice, but rarely do writers follow it. We throw in red herrings, false leads, and random fluff all the time, either to spice up the back story, fill pages, or just to throw off readers who have gotten so sophisticated, they figure out where we're going before we do. So isn't it fun, as a writer, when you suddenly realize that one of those random bits of fluff you threw in there to fill out the back story actually turns out to be the key to pulling your entire plot together?
For me, the piece I needed was the name of the betrayer. I had been wracking my brain to come up with some elaborate scheme or conspiracy, when the answer was actually right in front of me all along. It was so simple, and yet I never even saw it coming.
I had one of those moments yesterday with my current WIP, Lucid. I had reached the climatic confrontation section, the final 1/3 of the book, got my hero up to his ass in alligators, and while I had an idea of what needed to happen to get him out, I hadn't really come up with that one, final twist of the blade that would make the reader go, "Wow, I didn't see that one coming."
My college mentor once told me never put anything in a story you didn't intend to use, regardless of how insignificant or random it might be. If you're going to bother writing it, it must have a purpose. It's good advice, but rarely do writers follow it. We throw in red herrings, false leads, and random fluff all the time, either to spice up the back story, fill pages, or just to throw off readers who have gotten so sophisticated, they figure out where we're going before we do. So isn't it fun, as a writer, when you suddenly realize that one of those random bits of fluff you threw in there to fill out the back story actually turns out to be the key to pulling your entire plot together?
For me, the piece I needed was the name of the betrayer. I had been wracking my brain to come up with some elaborate scheme or conspiracy, when the answer was actually right in front of me all along. It was so simple, and yet I never even saw it coming.
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