Oh, what was that sound? Was it...a penny dropping?

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I've talked about this before, I believe. That moment when something clicks, or the penny drops, or everything falls into place. Choose your own favourite cliche.

As a rabid anti-outliner who loves torturing herself by flying by the seat of her rather smexy pants, at the beginning of NaNo or any writing project I have three things:
  1. The inciting incident
  2. The ending
  3. A faint feeling that I am quite possibly unhinged
And sure as eggs is eggs and Shannon Leto is the hottest man on the planet, when I get around one third to half way through my story, the way becomes clear. I suddenly see how to get from here (tenuous beginning, a few characters, a wing and a prayer) to there (conflict resolved, everything's hunky dory, HEA...or not).

Forgive my hippy-trippy wankiness, but it's as if the writing gods say, "Okay, just you start. Show us how badly you want to get there, and once you're, oh...50% into your projected word count, we'll help you out by sending a muse to whisper golden words in your ear."

Okay, maybe not golden. But the muse whispers something slightly less crapulous than what I've been churning out so far.

I'm still behind by a few thousand, but this evening I crossed the 25k mark. (Can I get a HELL YEAH)?

And wouldn't you know it, I just had my 'ding ding' moment. And here it is:

The male MC wasn't meant to appear until quite a ways into the story. (I now see I'm going to go waaaaay over 50k). The female MC had to work her way through quite a few other folks before getting to him, let's say. But no, he's decided to insinuate himself into my NaNo a few chapters early, and get an 'in' into my heroine's life.

But I was standing at my kitchen sink just now, doing the dishes - great for helping your writing, I really recommend it. Anyone wanna come round and do my chores for me? No? Oh well, worth a try.

On with the point of this thread, for there is one, oh yes.

I thought it would be more tantalising if, instead of appearing, BAM! in the heroine's life in a later chapter, he appeared, faded away, pushed himself forward a little more, receded, and only then made his move.

I'm not making much sense, am I? Don't worry, it'll all fall into place when I write it.

So. Am I mad, or does anyone else have moments like this, where you start writing and feel like you're walking through treacle, you fight on and eventually make it to the point of, "Holy shit; I can see myself finishing this thing now!"

I love it when this happens.
 
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Deccydiva

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Yep! Welcome to the magic circle!

... and BTW, if your book is written like your post, I'll buy it. ;) Love your style lady!
 
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My book has teh smex in it. Lots of it.

That's probably why my male MC showed up early. He wanted in on the action. ;)
 

cjharley

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Glad you found your groove, Scarlet. As a first time NaNo'er and first time writing a novel or anything of any length, I have been flying by the seat of my not so smexy pants. I think about one third of the way into my novel I knew where I was going, but I certainly have not had a moment such as yours. Maybe that will come in the next 20K. :D

Congrats on making it halfway!
 

ccarver30

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I love when something kind of takes you by surprise. I had that happen today. An emergency arose that I had no idea about (in my novel) and my characters demanded to help. They're so bossy.

SP, have you met Shannon? He has the biggest forearms in the universe, I swear.
 

dclary

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I've talked about this before, I believe. That moment when something clicks, or the penny drops, or everything falls into place. Choose your own favourite cliche.

As a rabid anti-outliner who loves torturing herself by flying by the seat of her rather smexy pants, at the beginning of NaNo or any writing project I have three things:
  1. The inciting incident
  2. The ending
  3. A faint feeling that I am quite possibly unhinged
And sure as eggs is eggs and Shannon Leto is the hottest man on the planet, when I get around one third to half way through my story, the way becomes clear. I suddenly see how to get from here (tenuous beginning, a few characters, a wing and a prayer) to there (conflict resolved, everything's hunky dory, HEA...or not).

Forgive my hippy-trippy wankiness, but it's as if the writing gods say, "Okay, just you start. Show us how badly you want to get there, and once you're, oh...50% into your projected word count, we'll help you out by sending a muse to whisper golden words in your ear."

Okay, maybe not golden. But the muse whispers something slightly less crapulous than what I've been churning out so far.

I'm still behind by a few thousand, but this evening I crossed the 25k mark. (Can I get a HELL YEAH)?

And wouldn't you know it, I just had my 'ding ding' moment. And here it is:

The male MC wasn't meant to appear until quite a ways into the story. (I now see I'm going to go waaaaay over 50k). The female MC had to work her way through quite a few other folks before getting to him, let's say. But no, he's decided to insinuate himself into my NaNo a few chapters early, and get an 'in' into my heroine's life.

But I was standing at my kitchen sink just now, doing the dishes - great for helping your writing, I really recommend it. Anyone wanna come round and do my chores for me? No? Oh well, worth a try.

On with the point of this thread, for there is one, oh yes.

I thought it would be more tantalising if, instead of appearing, BAM! in the heroine's life in a later chapter, he appeared, faded away, pushed himself forward a little more, receded, and only then made his move.

I'm not making much sense, am I? Don't worry, it'll all fall into place when I write it.

So. Am I mad, or does anyone else have moments like this, where you start writing and feel like you're walking through treacle, you fight on and eventually make it to the point of, "Holy shit; I can see myself finishing this thing now!"

I love it when this happens.

Could you mail me that penny? Rent's due.
 

dclary

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"That Pat Boone is so straight-laced... I shook his hand and my entire right side sobered up." -- Dean Martin
 

Yeshanu

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As a rabid anti-outliner who loves torturing herself by flying by the seat of her rather smexy pants, at the beginning of NaNo or any writing project I have three things:
  1. The inciting incident
  2. The ending
  3. A faint feeling that I am quite possibly unhinged
Considering I started with only number one, and the certain knowledge that I'm unhinged, you're well ahead of me there. And the inciting incidents for my novel all came from the dares thread over on the NaNo board. Can you say "really, really unhinged"? :D

And sure as eggs is eggs and Shannon Leto is the hottest man on the planet, when I get around one third to half way through my story, the way becomes clear. I suddenly see how to get from here (tenuous beginning, a few characters, a wing and a prayer) to there (conflict resolved, everything's hunky dory, HEA...or not).

Forgive my hippy-trippy wankiness, but it's as if the writing gods say, "Okay, just you start. Show us how badly you want to get there, and once you're, oh...50% into your projected word count, we'll help you out by sending a muse to whisper golden words in your ear."

I'm still behind by a few thousand, but this evening I crossed the 25k mark. (Can I get a HELL YEAH)?

HELL YEAH! (Love that song...) And I'm going to cross the 25K mark in less than an hour. See you there!

And wouldn't you know it, I just had my 'ding ding' moment.

But I was standing at my kitchen sink just now, doing the dishes - great for helping your writing, I really recommend it. Anyone wanna come round and do my chores for me? No? Oh well, worth a try.

Nice try, but no. I have my own dishes, my own laundry, and my own house to clean. Works for me, too, btw. NaNo doesn't have to mean sink and counter overflowing with dirty dishes, or dirty laundry piled up while the rest of the household becomes less and less fussy when they do the 'sniff test.'

So. Am I mad, or does anyone else have moments like this, where you start writing and feel like you're walking through treacle, you fight on and eventually make it to the point of, "Holy shit; I can see myself finishing this thing now!"

I love it when this happens.

Me too! For me, the "Ah Ha!" moment came a few days ago, when my characters suddenly found out that there was a purpose for the turmoil that had suddenly made an appearance into their lives. Suddenly I had not just interesting characters in an interesting situation, but something resembling a plot!

Onward to 50K!
 

Rose English

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I'm still waiting for that small and important sound. But, I haven't been able to leave my story alone today; I keep fiddling with it. And fiddling with it. Maybe something exciting is going to happen...
 
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Kalyke

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I was at about midway when I decided the MC's friend was going to die in an accident that he obliquely takes part in (It was a typical "boys messing around" accident). The story totally shifted gears from one about a young guy waiting for his POW father to come home, to one about the young guy dealing with guilt and blaming himself.

This changed the story from something I had thought of as "practice" to something I would consider publishing.