Little Sparks & a Plug (or two)

We were driving back from the coast yesterday when out of nowhere a little detail of a scene I’ve been working on in my novel came to me—just a flash of a piece of clothing in a scene and it went on from there and became fully formed in my head. It was something that hadn’t occurred to me but is actually very important to the scene (this has been happening a lot lately and is a part of the editing process that I really love). This detail has also led to a change in the next scene which will make that scene stronger as well. I hadn’t taken a notebook with me (shock horror!) and was madly scrambling around my partner’s car for a piece of paper and a pen that was luckily in the glove box. I don’t know about everyone else but sometimes I’ll have great ideas usually when I don’t have the means to write them down. Then I think surely I’ll remember them later because they’re so great, right. Right? No.

I had a great idea last week while I was driving home from work but do you think I could remember it by the time I got home? I still can’t remember it. I really need to take advantage of the voice recorder that will surely be in my mobile phone (just need to work out where it is in my fancy new phone).

Is there also anyone else out there who has ideas at night after they’ve turned out the lights, in those minutes (or longer) before they go to sleep? The lamp on my bedside table often gets flicked on and off several times as I reach for my notebook and jot down the basics of the idea (it’s best not to write in the dark—it makes for difficult deciphering the next day). I’ve fooled myself in the past that I’ll remember it in the morning and there’s no need to get up and write it down. Not anymore.

I have yesterday’s notes with me at work today and I’m going to work on the chapter in my lunch break and give it a good polishing.

Oh, and yesterday I also managed to squeeze in a little reading time :)

I’m going to give another plug to two books I recently purchased by blogger friends:

I’m reading Riot Boy by Katey Hawthorne at the moment, and I really wish life didn’t get in the way and make me have to put it down. I can’t wait to find out what happens next, and I really hope everything works out for them in the end.

Next to read will be Barbed Wire Hearts by Cate Gardner. The premise sounds fabulous and with Cate’s books you know you’re in for a hell of a ride.