The "eureka!" moment

Sometimes, I'll start writing something, and I'll get blocked about 20,000 words in. I'll lose sight of who my characters are, the plot will suddenly come to a halt, or it just doesn't have enough soul for me to keep on going.

Usually those novels get pushed aside and I start working on something new.

But this one that I started up last year...I feel a bit differently about it.

I started it sometime last spring. I liked the elements of the story, I liked the plot, but the truth was that it wasn't going anywhere and my characters weren't feeling it and it just wasn't right. So I set it aside and allowed myself to work on other things and put it in my "scrap that might be useful someday" folder.

Then my revision went out to my critique partners again, and I figured hey, I might as well pull that story I loved out of the folder.

When I opened it up, all that I saw was the title, then in big black letters: "YEAH, YOU HAVE TO REWRITE THIS. SUCK IT, BITCH."

Past!me was so cruel.

I tried to rewrite the chapters, but it still didn't feel right. There was something off about it. I tried starting it over again with a different POV, and that didn't work. I tried starting it in a different place of the story. That did nothing. I tried writing a random chapter for the middle of the book. That really didn't work.

So I set it aside again. Told myself that I was going to have a little while to think about nothing, get the story off my mind, read a bit, watch some pointless TV, do nothing.

Then last night...I realized exactly what I had to do with the story to make it work. I figured out exactly what was missing. Naturally, it came to me right as I was about to fall asleep. Because, you know, that's always what happens.

And this is why I'm an insomniac.


Sometimes the "eureka" moment never comes. Sometimes you just have to give up on a project and move on.

But when it works out, and the "eureka" moment comes along, and the story flows right along? That's the greatest feeling in the world.