The Amazing, Creative, Wonderful, Unknowable Mind

Having just "finished" (are they ever, really?) my debut novel, and feeling confident enough to upload it, added to writing the first draft of the prequel to my debut novel a mere twenty days ago during NaNo, it strikes me as miraculous how our minds work.  One inconsequential decision in one book, led to something I used in the second.  Never knowing how the first connected to the second.

I'm a pantster.  Meaning I go with my gut.  Never plot.  Except for in my head.  Letting things stew, mull, ferment.  Then with a sufficient nudge, I begin capturing my idea more permanently.  If my subconscious sends me a signal to put in, say, a moose, I do it.  Without questioning.  Then forget it.  And wouldn't you know?  Later I grab this brilliant idea passing through my brain cells on this perfect use for that moose, complete with an underlying meaning as well.

How cool is that?

Writing is about discovery.  It entails maybe ten percent participation by the author--sitting down, typing something, anything, to warm up the muse, signaling the conscious and the unconscious minds to start gathering things.  Then while you do what you can with no plan, no safety net, no map, you receive these wonderful nuggets, bread crumbs leading you to The End.

The sheer mystical magical mystery of it all places me firmly in the state of awe and wonder.

I am so blessed to be an author.

P.S.
Courtesy of A Word A Day, this was too timely not to share: 

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

My stories run up and bite me in the leg -- I respond by writing them down -- everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off. -Ray Bradbury, science-fiction writer (b. 1920)

The Magical Elements in NaNoWriMo

As a 2011 NaNoWriMo Participant, I have learned that inspiration can hit AFTER you start writing.  That even with worrying about your late start on the day's NaNo WC, the muse can still show up pretty much immediately upon tapping those keys.  

My mantra this year is to have fun with it, to keep my Internal Editor gagged and to not question the writing.  I leave notes that remind me to add this, or move that, and I've hit a sweet spot two days in a row, so I'm jazzed.  

As of late yesterday, my NaNo WC reached 17,489.  If I can keep up my current daily pace, I should hit the magical 50,000 WC mark by November 22!  Wow!  Of course, I intend to continue on.  

What helped me is that I took a character, the grandfather, from my soon-to-be-released debut novel, "Good Ole Boys," and am working on his story in the NaNo prequel novel.  In fact, some interesting details came out in the NaNo prequel that alters my timeline of some events in the original tale.  Good thing I know that now, so I can edit those entries before uploading the first story.

Two amazing things happened (so far) during NaNo.  I needed something on two occasions--two surprise factors--that slid home what emotion I was trying to hit, and hit hard.  It was astounding what came to me WITHIN NANOSECONDS (pun not intended here!) that I DID NOT KNOW about my own story creation.  They continue to shock me.  Just goes to prove that once you set about to do something, the universe or God, or whoever is your personal favorite, steps in to aid us.  Simply stupefying.  In a good way.

Oh, and just so you know:  Before a book is published, it is correct to put it within quotations as I've done above.  See CMS 8.195.

Of course, after publication, it becomes the italicized version we all know and love.

Write on, fellow NaNo peeps!  #nanowrimo