The magic of writeins.

Write-ins can be magical. Why? Merely by explaining your idea to someone else helps crystalize it in your own mind. Plus, other people can help you overcome an evil deficit (if that is what you are writing about)

Case in point: Tonight during the Somerville writein, one of the participants was explaining her idea to me. I had to clamp my lips shut on the ideas that were boiling in my head. After all, it was not MY novel, so I kept quiet, only asking questions about the action. "And then what happened?" and such. Then the writer paused and said something like "I was thinking of having the main character do this. But I'm not sure." That's the cue.... "Can I make a suggestion?" "Sure" "OK, consider this...main character does this, kids do that, minor character is doing just what you said. But try this out: instead of doing A, have the minor character do B and leaves.. Then later on, the kids have stew. Made. From. Their. Pet. Horse." The writer jumped back and said "Ewwww!", just like the other onlooker.

I sat back, smiled, and said "How would you like your readers do the exact same thing while reading your book?" You;ve done it yourself - thrust the book away from you in horror, then snatch it back up and keep reading.

Now, this is NOT about me. During other writeins, I have witnessed others heloing writers in exactly the same way. You can't buy this kind of help - only fellow Wrimos have the same insight into your issues.

So, come out to a write-in. You never know when you'll get that peek into a facet of your novel you didn't know was there.

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Bill The Computer Guy
Scrivener ordinaire
Participant, 2008. Novel euthanized at 9.7k on Nov 15.
Winner, 2007, Earth is Hell!