I ran into Michael, a friend from my California YSA ward, a couple weeks ago. We chatted for a bit, I invited him to drop by anytime and we parted. To my suprise, last Sunday he dropped by. He invited me to have dinner with him and his parents who were visiting (I know them from home, too). I had a total blast catching up with them and hearing Michael's ideas for several stories he's working on. This was how our friendship started a couple years ago- discovering a shared interest in writing (and music- yay! and photography- yay!). Later that evening he emailed a couple rough drafts (I like to call them vomit plots) for me to comment on. (I liked one, but not the other... and told him so. He took it well.) I ran into him again on Wednesday evening and yes, heard all about another story idea he's got, and gave him an update on how my story is going...which really, was nowhere, but now look:
My story in Post Its!!
Friday evening, after all that talk, I had to pull out my story (from National Novel Writing Month) and remind myself where I was with it. I remember everybody's name, and their main goals, but when I began reading what I'd written, I had no idea what I was talking about. So I turned to the wall. And put up each plot turn/scene in order. And it turned my brain back on! This is where I am now:
A bit farther!! I remember where I was, where I am, and have ideas of where I want to go! I've actually written about a third of what is on the wall, and what is on the wall is only about half of the entire plot. I'm excited to be back in what we Wrimos call NaNo Land (even though it's not November) and amazed to discover that when I go looking for them, the ideas are there. I don't know how long this current burst of passion will last, but there are some interesting times ahead for my characters. Now I'll have something to tell Michael when I run into him again.
