Writing on the Fly

Subtitle:
Flying by the Seat of Your Pants

That’s what I feel like I’m doing these days. It’s a little bit scary, a little bit intimidating and a lot of fun!

Typically, when I develop an idea for a story, I make a few journal notes to record the initial idea and some possible ways to develop the idea. A little bit of plotting, maybe, and some thoughts on lead characters and others.

Sometimes, a new idea appears as a scene. The characters don’t have names and I know nothing about them except whatever is taking place in the scene that comes to mind. That scene may end right there, it may last a couple of days or it may take off and become a more fully developed story.

Sometimes, I ‘hear’ someone ask a question or make a statement and an idea takes off from there. The very pertinent question, “Do you really believe all that stuff?” led to three or four scenes a few weeks back. I knew which character was asking the question when it suddenly popped up into my awareness and who he was speaking to, but not the context.

What I’m doing this month doesn’t resemble any of those methods beyond the fact that writing is involved.

What I’m doing this month is simply starting at Point A and writing to Point B without thought for plot or character development or anything but word production. At the beginning of each writing day, I start where I left off the day before and write either until I run out of time or run out of things to write about.

When I sit down at the computer to write and have ideas tumbling out of my imagination, this “fly by the seat of your pants” writing method is great.

When I wake up in the morning with scenes and ideas already partially developed and ready to go, it’s even better.

But when I sit down and have only a computer screen and that flashing cursor to look at, it’s not so much fun. On days like that, it’s pretty much mind over matter. Write one word. Put another after that, then another, another and another and hopefully, by the end of the day, I’ll have met the day’s goal and, maybe, finished another chapter.

That scariest thing about this writing method to a writer like me, though, is not knowing where the story is headed from one day to the next. For each of the last couple of days, for example, I’ve written myself out each day, writing everything that came to mind as quickly as possible. When I stopped for the day each day, I had no idea where I’d be going in the story the next day. On a couple of those days, I had no idea where I was going with the story when I sat down to write. All I can do is ask the Lord to give me whatever He wants me to write about, then start writing.

That particular part of the process does make the rest of it worthwhile. Starting with nothing, praying for guidance and having it provided has been good for me personally as a form of spiritual confirmation. It makes me more fully understand that while I have been given the talent and inclination to write, I am just a tool in the hand of God. Just a tool.

Slowly, I am coming to realize that it also allows me just to write without getting bogged down with logistics (I love logistics!), details, keeping track of what happened when, to whom and where and just lets me put words on paper (electronically speaking).

So it is a good thing.

Even if it is scary sometimes and even if I sometimes have no idea where the story is headed.

And, most importantly, when it’s just plain, hard work.