the much butchered nano novel
Inspiration strikes at the oddest of times.
Today I was sitting in a meeting reviewing technical requirements for the main software tool that we use at work, and during a lull in the proceedings (in other words, my attention span) I started to doodle a mindmap of my much butchered nano novel.
Unfortunately, up until this point, I had always been stymied by the exact nature of the main opposing protagonist, and how the two main storylines linked and influenced each other.
Out of nowhere came the answers. Those blank spaces and scribbled, underlined and encircled question marks seemed to inspire something in me, and before I knew it the protagonist, the threat, the obstacles that my heroes would be fighting against, all existed. They were there, manifest and extant.
The parallel thread now has a proper root in the first (it always did, but now it is inextricably entwined) and the influences are easy to see.
More importantly I now see how I can sustain the tone and the magic of those brief passages of prose from the original effort that I was most pleased with. I can begin to write with true direction and the characters are becoming more defined and more real within my mind and imagination.
Now, if only I could take my netbook into future meetings and do something of real interest…
