« Today’s (Writing) Tally | Main | Good Reading-Super-Short Fiction Edition »
August 21, 2005
A Good Writing Day
It was a good writing day. I got a lot done and have spent five plus hours on writing already today.
A couple hours ago I begrudgingly sat down to do the thirty minutes of writing practice I’ve been meaning to do for weeks. I pulled A Writer’s Book of Days from the shelf and chose a prompt.
That prompt brought forth a story that flowed so effortlessly and urgently that I couldn’t stop when the thirty minutes were up. I even had to turn down the heat on the stove so my dinner didn’t burn while I neglected it in favor of the unfolding story.
One hour later the first draft, in long hand, was done. But I couldn’t let it go yet. Instead I spent the next hour typing it into my computer so I could proof and edit it tomorrow on my pda while I’m heading back and forth to work.
The story is about magic gone wrong, but the experience of writing it has so far been magic gone right. Seriously the story sprang to life so fully-formed that I have to fight the urge to submit it somewhere right away, tonight!
Instead I’m going to do the sensible thing and look at it again tomorrow. At the very least there are probably some dreadful typos I missed. (There were several in the hand-written first draft.) Still, this story will probably demand to be submitted somewhere by the end of the week.
Sometimes, rarely, writing happens like this for me. I’m in the zone. The planets are in alignment. The muse just shoves me out of the way and takes over. Who knows exactly what it is that happens?
All I know is that it feels fantastic and I’m grateful when it happens.
Posted by Selena at August 21, 2005 07:54 PM