Meredith Mansfield, Author

Now that the calendar says it’s officially over, I was going to post about “Awful August” today.  Well, maybe I’ll save that for Sunday.  (You have figured out that I post on Wednesdays and Sundays, right?)  Today, I’m going to celebrate.  It’s not a big celebration, but you’ve got to take what you can get. 

I just finished Chapter 9 of MAGE STORM.  This is a new chapter added as part of the second draft and it had me stopped earlier in the week.  I knew what needed to happen in this chapter; two characters who weren’t friends before become friends partly by virtue of working together against the antagonist.  But I didn’t know the details.  It’s really hard to write a scene, let alone three or four, without those pesky little details. 

I got the first part of the chapter written and then just stared at the # where the next scene was supposed to start.  Nothing. 

Ideas come to me best when I’m writing.  Not necessarily right when I’m sitting with my fingers on the keyboard, but when I’m spending enough time writing every day to keep the juices flowing.  So, I set MAGE STORM aside for a day or two.  I worked on some back-logged revisions to DREAMER’S ROSE.  I revised my latest short story. 

Then I came back to MAGE STORM.  Still nothing.  I started the scene anyway.  Even if I haven’t figured out the details, I know where it takes place and who’s there.  Those things have to be set up anyway.  Before I had that paragraph done, more was coming to me.  I just now typed the last few sentences.  I like it.  And now I can move on with the rest of the second draft.

Yay!