While out for an evening walk with my hubby, Dude, a song came on my iPhone that reminded me of something I recently discovered about myself as a writer. The song was "I Don't Want to Wait," by Paula Cole. Many of you will remember it as the theme song for the teen-angst TV series, Dawson's Creek.
Why would that song make me think of writing? Because when I'm writing a new book or even a short story, I don't wanna wait to get to the big scene. If there's going to be an encounter with a phantom, I want it to happen right away. If there will be an important interaction between lovers, ditto. I want it to happen immediately. Of course, that isn't always feasible. It's great to start off with a bang, true. But there has to be some foundation laid that will lead up to the big scenes. In other words, to get to point B, there needs to be a point A.
But it's okay, I finally realized that there are no rules saying I have to write the scenes in the order in which they occur. I DON'T HAVE TO WAIT! Thank goodness . . . because I'm finding it much easier (and more enjoyable) to write out my favorite scenes FIRST. They usually account for the genesis of the story anyway, so naturally I want to get them down before I lose them.
After that, it's sort of like connecting the dots. In fact, once the major scenes are written, the rest of the tale almost leaps onto the page. It's simply a matter of following the story-map logically from point A to B to C and so on.
So there ya go. I don't want to wait, and since I'm the author, I don't have to!
Afterthought: I think I'll name my next female character Patience =)
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