Day 18: Write off the Path

While trying to write anther NaNoWriMo post earlier today I ended up off on a tangent with only the slightest connection with what I had been writing. When I ran out of words I found that not only had I not completed my original thought but the new idea was too big to coral all at once. It wanted to be threaded through the process of writing a first draft through to editing and refining. It started going on about the relationship between writer and reader. It was not what I was aiming at at all. It has no place in this month’s theme.

But that’s alright, more than alright, because now I have a good start on a post, maybe more than one, for later on. It doesn’t help me much in getting my November posts ready but ideas can be so hard to catch I won’t complain about their timing.

The thing is you never know where a thought might lead you. The whole idea started with one line, one metaphor. Now it’s a half grown idea that is just waiting to be filled out a little and polished up. I couldn’t have known that when I started following it and if I had backed up and gone back to where I was supposed to be I wouldn’t ever have known what I missed.

Even if an idea seems to be going completely off your path follow it awhile, you might have found a new plot twist or an entirely new story idea. No matter how off topic it seems you can never waste your time on an idea. You never know what use you might have for that random paragraph or out of the blue sentence. Write these things down, keep them, feed them with a little brain storming and maybe they’ll surprise you.

Yes I know you’re in the middle of writing a novel right now and can’t take the time to follow every fancy. Really that’s not what I mean any way. Right now I’m just suggesting that instead of back spacing something that doesn’t fit that you consider cutting and pasting it to another file to be looked at later. And if the words are tumbling out in a direction you didn’t mean to go, go any way. See what’s over there and then come back and go on if it isn’t a better way.

Really what this rambling little post means is that if something wants to be written, write it: Even if it’s inconvenient. For NaNo writers remember that if it has any chance of being in your finished novel you can count it in your word count and words that want to be written come out faster than the kind you have to coax, drag, or otherwise terrorize onto the page.

— Rita

NaNoWriMo day 18