I was having one of those delightful, half-asleep, creative bursts of inspiration — where all the story pieces are just flowing from one interesting moment to another and it all feels fantastically fun — and then I fully woke up, and thought, “What???” I think there was a banana peel involved. I’d love to know how banana peels became so emblematic of slapstick humor. I bet it was an old movie. Because, really, how often does one slip on a banana peel? How often is there a banana peel lying in the street? Anyway, my half-asleep self was having fun, but not making a lot of sense.
Also, my half-asleep self was working on the wrong book. Bad, half-asleep self, bad. Last week, my gluten-reaction kept me from finishing APM. I wasn’t so sick that I ever fully regretted my choices — and now that it’s over, I definitely think the corned beef was worth it — but I was sick enough that writing was not happening. So it goes.
Last night, I was explaining my plans for this week — they included a lot of, “I will stare at my file, I will get discouraged, I will go do something different,” — when Greg, C’s bf, started asking me questions. It was awesome. He asked exactly the right questions to precipitate ideas. I’m not 100% of the way there, but I’m close enough that I’m hoping for great things for today and tomorrow.
While I was sick, I read the whole file again, a little bit in “first revisions” mode, ie searching for places with problems, slow parts, things that would need to be cut or have major revisions made. I wound up not marking it for any revisions at all, because I was too engrossed in the story. The beginning felt slow, but that might just be because it’s too familiar to me now, since I’ve edited it numerous times. But it made me laugh. It’s not the story I set out to write at all, but it’s definitely fun. And now I’m going to get back into it. Happy Monday!
tehachap said:
How cool that you had someone who could ask you questions that would stimulate your creative juices! Nice… glad the gluten episode has ended.
wyndes said:
Yes, it was great! I’ve got one other friend who’s really good at that — her husband was a writer, so she spent 20+ years figuring out how to listen/brainstorm with a stuck writer. But it’s a rare skill!