Having had that bit of time away from my WIP, and now working with my editor’s input on revisions, I now have a whole new level of excitement for this project. I’m thinking about the characters again, and they’re giving me some great material. Just last night I was up late scribbling notes on the pad of paper I keep next to my bed. Sometimes those late-night bursts of brilliance turn out to be nothing more than drivel; other times I end up using my ideas almost word-for-word. But whichever end of the spectrum it turns out to be, those nighttime ideas always mean my excitement level is where it should be for a project I’m currently working on.
So what was that late-night epiphany? Well, it wasn’t that dramatic, to be perfectly honest. But I do intend to explore my thoughts. In this story, a feud in the small, French village setting plays a rather important role in the plot. One of the things my editor mentioned is how well this feud is set up but then, with so many things related to the war taking up the middle section, the feud is nearly forgotten. I completely agreed. As I was laying in bed just ready to drift off into sleep, my characters visited and started talking about the origins of the feud.
I’d been thinking about the conversations between my hero and heroine earlier, wondering what it would be like to live under an occupying army. One of the things I considered was how difficult it would be to talk about anything except the shortages, the uncertainty, the soldiers. I’d wondered if people would ever talk about something that wasn’t related to the war, with their hunger a constant reminder of the occupation.
This late-night act my characters put on for me answered that question. It might be possible, and here was a topic pertinent enough to make it onto the pages of a book. I intend to explore the possibility today. I have no idea if this conversation will make it into the final draft, but it’ll be fun to experiment.
I’ve talked to other writers about these kinds of late-night “epiphanies,” which seem to be a pretty universal symptom of the creative mind. Just when you think you’re ready for sleep…
I like to write for fun and I’ve had those late night epiphanies since I was a kid. I’ve always kept stuff to write on by my bedside lamp because I can’t sleep unless I get it all out. And usually it’s not a 10 minute ordeal..it could be hours!! I love it 🙂
I know exactly what you mean! I once woke up at 3:30 in the morning and had this fully developed scene in my head. I wrote it all out, longhand, and ended up using most of it in the final edit. I never went back to sleep. It was actually a scene from The Oak Leaves about the Fragile X family I wrote about, the scene at the end where Reginald confronts Peter and Cosima.
Isn’t it nice to know these kinds of things are normal? Keep that paper handy! Thanks for sharing.