Last week I sat down to write a new chapter for my
work-in-progress but couldn’t figure out where to start. One of the downsides
of being a pantser. I stared at the white page and stuck out my tongue in
disgust. Then I told the computer what I thought. “I have plenty of other
things to do. You’re boring. I’m out of here.”
I grabbed my to-do list and headed out the door. Somehow
having my day outlined felt comforting. At least I knew I would accomplish
something. My feeling of triumph was quickly dashed when I hit a road closure
on the way to the first stop on the list.
I told myself, “No biggie, I’m off to number two.” On the drive to stop
number two, I realized I had forgotten the reason I was headed to the store. Oops,
hard to return a non-existent item. My luck seemed to be failing me again. Then
I thought what if I start at the bottom of the list instead?
From that moment on my day flew by. I checked five things
off the list and felt great. When I got home I jogged up the stairs to the office
and plopped myself down in the chair. The white page still stared back at me—but
not for long. I knew how I wanted to end the chapter. So I scrolled down to the
bottom of the page and wrote backwards. I never felt so free. The words poured
out of me and after an hour I had the whole chapter blocked out—like magic.
The blank page will never haunt me again. I learned an
important lesson. Sometimes you need to do things backwards to move forward.
3 comments:
That's great! And that's the freedom of being a pantser. For one of my novels, I wrote the last chapter before I wrote anything else. I knew how the book was supposed to end. Then I just had to let the characters drive me there.
Great post.
Michelle :)
www.michelle-pickett.com
Concilium, available July 27!
Thanks Michelle! Glad starting backwards worked for you too! : )
That's a good tool to have. For me, I find having an outline also helps.
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