When You Assume…

I love assumptions in writing.  Mostly because I love the way assumptions shatter when you have some sort of Major Revelation.  And then you wonder how you ever saw things any other way.

In the first book I wrote, I wound up scrapping about 20K words of the ending.  Something was off.  So I went back, added in some missing pieces, and started over.  And then in the middle of a scene, a character laid out the final piece of their nefarious scheme, and it was like watching someone tug at a giant knot, and having the whole thing unravel into something amazing and perfectly organized.  That moment of illumination, that I wouldn't have had otherwise, became one of my crowning moments of the book.  Because it was perfect.  (Incidentally, the entire conversation that happens is almost word for word identical in the final copy as it was in the first draft, that's how perfect it was).

See, we're taught by the Bad News Bears (and others) that when you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.  However, I think in writing that assumptions are a great thing.  Because that moment of genius that comes later on, when your expectations are challenged and things are suddenly shiny and new.

What about you?  Do you have moments like that?  Moments where suddenly things fall into place in a completely unexpected way?