I’ve been writing all morning and afternoon today – unusual for me as I’m normally spent after lunch. Stopped only to heat up soup and make an extra half-cup of coffee. Did solid work on a key moment, maybe the key moment of the novel. It’s the same as before in a lot of ways but hugely different in others. The same emotionally, but different spiritually, and intellectually, and a part of me wouldn’t let another part of me figure everything out until the character figured it out, until the words landed on the page. We shared the same moment of epiphany.
Have I written to you about this before? I probably have, because shared epiphany is something that occurs and reoccurs many times (if I’m doing it right) throughout this process. The character’s confusion is my own. My excitement is the character’s. I grow as the story grows. Symbiotic is a word, but generative is better. The manuscript and I react with each other; we become a process. We photosynthesize.
Deadline tomorrow. Still light out here in Detroit. I’m going to get on my bike and ride around for a while, clear my head, and then have a quiet evening at home. Still plenty of work ahead, but: I’m going to make it.