One of the best parts of being a writer, one of the most thrilling, anyway, is having one of [i]those[/i] moments. A moment where something just comes to me from that part of the ether where things come from, and it works. It just totally works.
It?s awesome.
I had one of those moments yesterday.
It happened in the morning, when I was working on the description for the final character illustration that I?ll be adding to the site. Mike Lunsford, the art student I?ve been working wiOne of the best parts of being a writer, one of the most thrilling, anyway, is having one of [i]those[/i] moments. A moment where something just comes to me from that part of the ether where things come from, and it works. It just totally works.
It?s awesome.
I had one of those moments yesterday.
It happened in the morning, when I was working on the description for the final character illustration that I?ll be adding to the site. Mike Lunsford, the art student I?ve been working with, will be doing an illustration for Finders Keepers of Ira and Howard, the dolphin and blue whale, respectively, who play a small, but important role in the story. And in writing the description for the Web site, I started thinking about how I even came up with those two characters in the first place, which was another one of those moments.
Liz and I were on vacation not long after Sept. 11., on a Caribbean cruise, with two other couples. We were at the gym, on elliptical machines, looking out over the sparkling blue Caribbean waters. And then it happened. From wherever they were, Ira and Howard just presented themselves to me. I had most of the plot worked out at that point, but still had some important holes to fill. Ira and Howard were the final missing pieces I?d been struggling with.
At the time, I had only been taking notes about Finders Keepers; I didn?t start writing my first draft until about a year and a half later. But then and there I had that moment, that absolutely [i]wow [/i]moment that stopped me in mid-elliptical and splashed a grin across my face. I hopped off the machine and took the pencil tied to an event sign-in clipboard, and wrote my notes on the back of a flier promoting a ship event that week. Even as I write this, I feel like I?m right back on that cruise ship, seeing Ira and Howard for the first time.
So yesterday, a few hours after I?d written about this cruise ship moment for the Web site, I went out to lunch at Around the Clock, a little place off of 4th Avenue, still thinking about that great moment. I was sitting by myself, reading Michael Chabon?s [i]The Mysteries of Pittsburgh[/i], and [i]whamo![/i] I had another one of those moments.
Thing is, the idea that came to me isn?t for my next novel, or even the one after that. It?s for what I expect will be my fourth novel, an idea I?ve been kicking around for several years. But no matter. I will write that book, and will include the idea I had today, in one form or another.
It?s been quite a while since I?ve had one of these moments, but man I love it when it happens. It energizes me, it thrills me. It?s one of the best parts of being a writer. Which just inspires me to write even more.
Being a writer isn?t always easy; sometimes it?s downright infuriating. But when it?s great, it?s so great. I just love these moments. I can never get enough.
