Almost Ready to Write

Man, I'm so close to being ready to start writing again! I can feel the pressure to write those first words growing stronger by the day. Over the last two days especially, insights have been coming to me fast, almost one after the other. Normally I feel satisfied with my workday if I have just one significant insight or discovery, but lately I've been having three, four, or five. Sometimes my pen can hardly keep up with my thoughts.

This is pretty normal stuff for a short story where the work only lasts for a few days leading up to the writing, then it's over in about three or four more days, maybe a week or two at the most. But with a novel, there's much more ground to cover. It takes a lot more work to get stoked over so much material.

I am stoked, though, probably because I've never been as prepared for a novel before. (To be fair to myself, I've only written one and a half novels, so I'm probably just getting better at it.)

This time I'm not going to let myself start writing until every character is totally real to me, the relationships between the characters are vivid, and all of the key physical objects are as real to me as if they were people. I'm almost there.

I can't believe that several weeks ago I thought I was ready to start writing. Hello!? What were you thinking, Toiler?! Ah, well. No unearned guilt. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think I knew that I wasn't ready, that starting was just a way to prove it to myself, to make myself want to do the necessary work to get where I am today. Ugh! The mind can be such a tricky thing sometimes.