Writing into the Dark

Welcome back to Motivational Monday!  How’s your writing “habit” going?

I tried a new experiment with the latest Two Old Biddies book.  I knew my characters, and that their dogs dug up some bones in their yard, but other than that, I knew NOTHING about how the story would unfold–not who the victim was, nor the suspects in his/her murder–NOTHING.

It’s called “writing into the dark,” or totally pantsing it, and it was a blast!  The book practically wrote itself–and in only 10 days!  True, it was a novella, only 17,000-20,000 words, but then that’s what I write.  If you’re tackling a full-length novel, it’s going to take a bit longer.

Each morning, as my “habit” dictated, I sat down and wrote.  I was churning out two chapters a day, in about 1 1/2 hours.  Then I’d write a paragraph of the next chapter, to give myself a hint of where the investigation was going, and stop there.  (Hemingway used to stop mid-sentence.)

The next morning, when I woke up, I’d lie in bed, thinking about that paragraph for about 5 minutes, then I’d get up and write.  I just trusted the characters and followed where they led me, and I’ve never had so much fun!  And gone was the 2/3-done doldrums, I always hit when writing a book.

Think you can’t do the same thing?  I never thought I could either, but I just proved it’s possible.  Will I write the next book that way?  I’m going to try.  I’ll let you know what happens.

Happy Reading and Writing Into the Dark to you all,

Jill-Ayn