Surprise!

So today I set out to write my 2000 words for the day, but I was captured by the story. I was surprised time after time, and I found I had to keep writing to keep up. This sounds like something fanciful, but it’s the truth.

I am an unabashed “pantser,” that is, one who writes by the seat of one’s pants. However, as I’ve shared before, I do have outlines and broad ideas where things are going. I leave myself open to surprises, and it pays!

Here’s some examples of what happened to me today:

Two characters are on a journey. They encounter a vista I’d not previously imagined, one that’s striking, tying the whole series together. It’s so iconic it could be a book cover or a movie poster.

In a shelter they discover (I had no idea it would be there) they disclose information that I mostly knew but did not anticipate they would share with each other. I didn’t even see the value at first, but it revealed itself in character conflict and raising the stakes and moving the plot, as if the characters knew this was what was needed.

EIGHT THOUSAND words later there’s a zinger, a huge revelation I honestly did not know, and again, it ties the whole book up with a bow. It resolves some conflict. It explains some others. It stations the secondary character for an important climactic moment.

Honestly, writing through these things is just as fun as reading those written by someone else.