Ran two miles this morning before I was fully awake (best if I sneak up on myself and get it over with before I catch on to what’s happening). One of the things I’ve noticed in the past couple of years is that, when you are running for twenty minutes to an hour at a time, you have a lot of time to think. That’s not always a plus, but when you are a writer with a problem-child story, it is a very good thing. At least, it is for me.

Last summer, as I ran, I plotted out and wrote “The Not Quite Right Reverend Cletus J. Diggs & The Currently Accepted Habits of Nature.” There were a lot of difficulties in that story, and I solved a lot of them on the road, plodding along one foot in front of the next, losing weight and gaining insight. Things I saw along the way triggered new ideas, and it didn’t hurt - I suppose - that I was running through the town that was the basis for the story.

This year it’s a little different. While running in the cemetery has given me something to use in the next Reverend Cletus story, that’s not what I’m writing currently, and it’s not much help. The current project involves a number of very complex characters, and they are now entwined with a fairly complex plot designed to read easily while pulling the wool over the eyes of all my readers. Even more so than a standard, front-to-back plot where you worry about the quality of your work, in a tricky manuscript designed to be entertaining, deceive, and then smack the reader between the eyes with the truth at the end, it’s easy to doubt.

Each time I’ve been snagged on this, though, I’ve found my way through. I have been spinning my wheels on the same section for quite some time now, and I wasted a lot of good writing time because - frankly - I could not figure out what to write. This morning, in a flash, it came to me…and I’m pretty sure it’s spot on. I’m SO sure that, instead of dreading trying to move on with it, I’m now irritated that I have an important paying project that I have to get through more of FIRST. Good times.

So this evening I will push on through the other project and hope to find an hour or so to move ahead with what I figured out while it’s fresh in my mind. I won’t say I recommend running for everyone, but I will say that I have found a lot of words along the roadway. It works for me.

DNW

Technorati Tags: epiphany, Old Mill NC, plot, running

Posted on 08/25/08, 7:06 AM
in: writing
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