When Writing Turns a Corner...

Yesterday I finished the first draft of another short story branching off my novel, 'Sanctuary'. And I had an interesting experience, one that I'm starting to have more and more, as I push myself to work more consistently.

These writers describe what it's like to write from the subconscious mind. I remember listening to Ray Bradbury talking about his writing this way - the legend is that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 in ten days, sitting at a rented typewriter at the Los Angeles Public Library, and that it largely emerged as we read it today, but only after he'd written many, many shorter stories first. That's the subconscious mind working.

Most days I'm very methodical, because I have to be. Glue butt to chair. Write 1,000 words, and I'm done for the day. It helps me to feel like I've accomplished something. Writing Sanctuary took two years, and I was done with the first draft by my 40th birthday, because I desperately needed something to point to and say, "Look, I haven't wasted my life after all. I followed my dream."

But the process of that was largely mechanical and methodical - until I tweaked my process.

I started to read more. A short story a day, an essay a day, a poem a day. The best stuff I could get my hands on - time-proven writing, more than the latest and greatest.

And then my writing changed. I started to recognize what I'd read in what I'd wrote. But it wasn't old. It was something I'd never seen before.

The story that came out yesterday surprised me. The ending surprised me to no end. I'd never thought of it happening that way, but when it came out, it made perfect sense.

It made my larger story new again, even though I've read it countless times by now. I love that there's nooks and crannies that haven't been explored or expanded upon yet that are still in me somewhere. It's as real a universe to me now as Harry Potter, or Star Trek, Star Wars, or any other fictional universe that's endlessly discussed and dissected on the web.

Letting go of it was a challenge, but it outgrew my mind at last, and I'm better now at sharing, I hope. Looking forward to seeing what else my subconscious mind will cough up over time.