Looking at our work in a new light

"Who are you, and how did I
end up in your arms?"

As I prepared to write today's post, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Amy wrote about the same kind of experience regarding writing epiphanies last week.

I'm currently in the process of editing a novella that's due to come out very soon, and something about it has been bugging me. (Imagine the baby in the above photo as the novella, and the guy holding his head as me. The baby/novella is totally confused, and the man/me is like, Arghhh... Now what do I do?)

After receiving the editor's notes and working on it for a couple of days, I knew the thing bugging me had to be addressed, and (nervously) sent an email. Her response turned out to be a great. I let out the breath I'd been holding for over a day. Her suggestion? *Simplify* it. Make it fun. That's it! (You'd think that would have been obvious, but sometimes we get stuck on specifics and try to make too much of things and lose sight of the big picture.)

The flood gates of ideas opened, and suddenly, I knew exactly what to do. That's the good thing about epiphanies: they make for such a pleasant writing experience! Even if more work is necessary, that's okay, because you know the solution. The end is in sight!

I like this quote by Marcel Proust:

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. 

Here's to new eyes for all of you, no matter where you are in the writing process!

The Epiphany

You know the drill.

You started a story on a whim and the words just flew from your manic fingers onto the screen. In days, you had the makings of a promising beginning. You tell everybody you've got something special, something obsession-worthy. You're not sleeping. You're eating bare minimum. But it's okay because you're an artist! No, better than that: an artiste (pronounced to rhyme with 'beast').

Then one morning you wake up and open your word document.

And stare.

And stare.

And stare. Where the heck did your muse go?

Suddenly the story is complicated. There's subtext to consider and the ending to solidify in a way that doesn't completely spoil the rest of the arc! There's pressure! No!!!

What do you do at this point?

Well, if you're me, you take a break. You read somebody's else's work, published or not. Maybe you read an entire trilogy plus a sequel plus The freaking Maze Runner. And when you aren't reading, you think. (See illustration above.) You go to your thinking spot:

• the shower
• your bed
• the porch swing
• the sofa
• favorite cafe
• a log
• Mount Sinai

And you think.

Because when you get an epiphany like the one I got last night, it's worth all that brain-busting waiting. Seriously, worth it. And since I spent that time thinking instead of forcing myself to write, I don't have a series of scenes going in the totally wrong direction which I now have to cut. And that feels good.

Had any epiphanies lately? How do you best trigger your writing muse?