Jeri Smith-Ready

Recovery period

Last Wednesday, seemingly out of nowhere, I finished my 6th novel.

Two weeks ago I decided, what the hell, I'm going to turn the first half of Angel's Gambit into the first third of a young adult trilogy. I'd already written 38K, trimmed it down to 32K, then proceeded to write 27K in the next nine days. Last Tuesday I wrote nearly seven thousand words. That's 31 double-spaced pages (which may or may not include the six I tossed away, I forget).

This isn't to brag, it's only to show what's possible when a writer is really turned on to an idea, when the book worms its way into our heads and takes over, like that sluggy thing from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. When it's a joy to create.

I had the momentum of having already written the first two-thirds of the novel, and I already knew the characters inside and out, even though I hadn't visited them in well over a year. I had the luxury of starting at the top of the hill, so that the exhiliration of the downhill speed was all that was left to experience.

It's been a wild two weeks, culminating in one very long, very sweet day, during which I played the Garden State soundtrack at least a dozen times, beginning to end. It fit perfectly with the two main characters and the sanctuary they (and I) found for a brief time-out-of-time.

Every once in awhile, this crazy endeavor called writing makes us really, really happy.

Labels: writing life

• posted by Jeri @ 9:05 PM
• 3 comments