Joined: 3/7/2011
Posts: 55
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It hits like lightning across the forebrain. The Brilliant Idea that
will be the Next New Book. And every thought is consumed with the "Oh,
wow!"ness of this new idea. It's fresh and exciting, especially if it
hits in the hard-middle-slog of a novel. Then, it inhabits your brain
like new lover, with promises of how everything is going to be easy and
light and problem free and THIS is the project you should be working on.
And the initial worldbuilding snaps together, characters are as clear as day. You open up a document and just start writing, because isn't that's how it's supposed to be? Isn't that how real
writers write, right? They just pound it out and go where the story
takes them and they do it brilliantly on their first draft and that's
what you're going to do this time because it's brilliant and you're
brilliant and this is the best novel ever written by anyone ever and--
CRASH
Somewhere between five and fifteen thousand words, the fiery passion
part is burnt out, and then you're poking at those dying embers and
realizing, "I don't actually have a plot here, do I?"
Anyone else get this?
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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I like to call this my Modus Operandi.
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Joined: 3/7/2011
Posts: 55
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Yeah, I have a handful of "graveyard" projects that have 5-15K words, and won't be finished. I've learned to at least temper those "initial excitement" burns to make sure there's more THERE there to support a whole novel.
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