The Thing About Writing

I don’t know how it works for everybody, but I know how it works for me. I intend, with the completion of each chapter, to go bounding into the next, to keep the momentum going and to push right through to the end. It never seems to work that way, though. Instead, I approach each new chapter like a dog approaches a place to nap. I sidle up to it slowly, sniff it a few times, complete three circles, and then get to it.

That is exactly what’s happening with Chapter 22 of Michael Drayton, Detective Guy. Psychologically, I’m ready to go forward. I just haven’t come up with the right opening sentence yet. I actually put down a couple of sentences three days ago, but removed them yesterday. It didn’t sound right, didn’t hit me right. And then, a few minutes ago, I opened up the previous chapter and read the end, hoping that something in there would inspire me. I just ended up rewriting the last paragraph of Chapter 21 and coming up with nothing for Chapter 22.

But that’s the process. I’ll come up with something soon. I’ll be taking a shower or going for a walk or reading something that has nothing to do with the book, and it will all open up in a moment of rapturous insight. That’s the system, and you can’t fight city hall.

(This post is a mirror of one on my other blog, Are You Happy Now, Norman Mailer.)

Chapter 21 Complete

I finally finished Chapter 21 yesterday, work on which was delayed by the holidays, the flu, a cold, and moving. Other than that, it couldn't have gone better.

I'm now contemplating the end of the novel, and I think it's going to be radically different than I had previously planned, and that there will probably be a confrontation with the killer or killers. I'm going to have to turn it around in the atomic wind machine of my mind for a day or two, I think.

There is a bit more information that I feel, in order to be fair to the reader, ought to be divulged. Because of this, I'm not certain whether I'm looking at just one more chapter or two, one long and one short. I suspect it will be the latter, but you never know until you actually start writing, an activity which should occur either today or over the weekend.

Provided I don't get sick or have to move again.