You always hear about writers that force themselves to work a certain number of hours (or words) a day. I’m not knocking it – Trollope and Moorcock spring to mind as shining examples.
But that doesn’t work for me. I go in waves. Especially when it comes to the plots and themes of a story. So I can easily go a couple of months without accomplishing much.
And then one morning I wake up at 3:30 and without really deciding to think about it, the way becomes clear. By 3:45 I knew I would have to get out of bed and get it all down. By 4:15 or so I was sending my notes to my co-author, with the caveat that it might not make sense in the morning.
But it does make sense. It’s the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for, hopefully. The major problem — which was of my own making, of course — was dissolved, making way for a much more satisfying plot.
This is for the SciFi mid-grade I’m writing with real-life Sci-Fi author Paul Dellinger. I had been focused on creating a government conspiracy, complete with some sort of Shadow Ops police force wanting to hunt down the main character.
That was way too much baggage. By making the problem an intimate one — home-brewed corruption, rather than gov. conspiracy — the action can flow better, with less exposition and a more satisfying personal, one-on-one final showdown against the Corrupt One, who I think will be named Barbara.
