Writing like a Reader

There’s nothing better than when you’re writing or rewriting and a scene completely takes you by surprise. You almost feel like a reader in that moment, and you can’t help but wonder, where the hell is this going to take me?

I live for these moments, these are the moments that make even the hardest fought moments worth while. These are the moments that I as an author live for. Outlining is all well and good, and it’s nice to know where the story is going on the grander scale of things, but some scenes or chapters or even paragraphs it’s kind of exhilarating to not know where your going. Your subconscious is taking you on an adventure and you can’t help but wonder if even your mind knows where it’s going. It is in these unexpected, unscripted moments that some of the best material is born.

Recently while working on my rewrite of the final six chapters, the end of chapter sixteen proved to be quite the roller coaster ride in the course of a single scene, it amps up the tension in a way that could be really be fun to delve into. Up until this point I had a mostly clear understanding of where the story was going, but now I have the opportunity to take a detour and really explore a more scenic route to get to my ultimate conclusion. I have no idea where it could take me and that’s part of the adventure, going along for the ride and letting it take you wherever it feels like.