I have rewritten this post twice and finally scrubbed it completely and started fresh. Here's to hoping the third time is the charm.
I have no way of knowing how things work for other writers but for me developing a story falls into two very different categories. Category one is the pre-voices in my head. That quiet time where I go and turn over rocks with my muse and try to piece together a story idea. I love this stage of the game. Putting those first few pieces together is such a rush. Then the voices come and characters start springing to life and demanding attention.
I confess, I don't know how I fell about this stage of the process. In the beginning I don't always understand my own characters or how they fit into the story I have started to form in my mind. Usually my characters reveal themselves slowly, a piece here and there. The more they reveal the more threads I can pick up or reject until I can tie the story and the characters together.
This is an imperfect process and a frustrating one while I am trying to pull it all together. There have been times when I have had to shove the whole tangled mess aside and walk away before tackling it again. Yesterday I finally was able to pull these threads together for my work in progress, the Damn Novel.
My husband looked at me like I had finally gone of the deep end as I jumped to show him the two pages of notes I had done that tied my novel together. I fidgeted as he read it. My husband is the sweetest guy I know but he is also the most honest. If something I write is rubbish, doesn't make sense or needs to be redone he tells me.
He looked at me and then the pages and then handed it back. "So what happens next?"
I danced all the way back to the computer. He was hooked and I was ready to start pounding out the zero draft.
music: Jon Bon Jovi "It's My Life"
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