On Momentum

A note from The Kerr: J.T. will still be writing for The Tao on Thursdays. So these are (not surprisingly) her words, not mine!
 

There comes a time in every book when the story begins to coalesce and gain speed. This time has (thankfully) come for my new standalone, which I’m trying to finish by the end of April so I can turn, unencumbered, to Catherine and the next Nicholas Drummond book (which, thankfully, is already knocking at my brain with a few ideas) the second week of May.

It’s the coolest feeling, this momentum. I can pinpoint the moment it started, too.

The week before last, I was doing a set of three deep-work days in a row, and something simply clicked on the last day, at around four in the afternoon. I caught a wave, and rode it all the way to the shore. I was still writing when hubby arrived home, and simply held up a finger and accepted a quick buss on the cheek. He knows me well enough not to interrupt a moment of true flow, and that’s where I was.

The book had come alive under my fingertips.

Interestingly, it was something off script that caused this wave, too. A character who wasn’t in the proposal or outline, who appeared a few weeks ago as a throwaway line, a convenience person, and has suddenly become a lynchpin.

It happens that way sometimes. It’s really the fun of writing, when the character who is the least important suddenly raises their hand and says, “HEY! Pay attention to me. I’m here for a reason, you silly writer.”

I’m a baseball fan, and I respect a streak. The thing with these kinds of flows is to not let them die. I made sure to touch the book every day whilst I was in Florida, and now I’m back and my fingers are itching to rediscover the story and see where it takes me. I’m over the halfway mark, which means I’ve got two of my “turns” in place, with two more to planned. This book seems to be twisting itself like a braid, though, so there may be more than I first thought.

And so… back to it. I will report in on how it goes.