The Wrong Idea

Back when I worked full time as a lawyer, nothing would flood my brain with story ideas and scenes as effectively as a deadline.  The closer and more pressing the deadline, the more imaginative and wild the ideas that would trek across my cortex.  Maybe I’d scribble three notes for later, but that would be it.  This was my brain trying to escape pressure.  I’m sure of it.

That still happens with my current practice, but now I can control my time better.

However, I am participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNo to the cognescenti) again, and something strange happened.  I started getting all stressed about maintaining the word count.  Would my writing buddies think poorly of me?  Would they laugh and whisper behind my digital back?  Would I know what was happening next in the plot?

As someone who writes to find out what happens next, I am the classic “pantser.”  I write by the seat of my pants, without benefit of outline, parachute, or scape suit.  Accordingly, I often have no idea what happens next.  This happens a lot in short stories, where you don’t want to wander too far from the story line you started with.  If you do that, you have a novel.  I left Took Their Wages, a short story, half-finished a couple months ago.

Now that I’m in NaNo, I have daily word count goals, peer pressure, and no idea what happens next.  I started writing down all my questions, describing all the holes I’ve dug for myself, and otherwise engaging in activities of productive despair.  Suddenly, I knew what came next.  One problem.  I knew what came next in my short story.  I had a good idea, but it was for the wrong story.  My NaNo novel remained a mystery.

How does one escape one’s own escapism?

I want to go finish the short story, but I try very hard with novels to follow Heinlein’s rule of working on one thing until it’s done.  So, after I get this one drafted I get to go back to Calvin Tondini and the legal effects of relativity on back pay.

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