Gotta Write

Sometimes I’ll be going along on my day, doing what I have to do, when suddenly an idea will hit me for the direction the story should go.  I don’t know where these little abrupt inspirations come from, but I’m always glad when they pop into my head. 

My guess is that my brain in constantly running through the story and thinking of new directions for it, even when I’m not consciously thinking about the story.  A friend of mine calls this phenomenon “programs running.”  Just like my computer running a program while I work on something else, I may not even realize the computer is hard at work beyond what I can see, but it is.

The only problem is when these little a-ha moments hit when I’m in no position to write.  One day I was on a machine at the gym when an idea hit me.  My guess is that the people around me thought I was completely insane because I stopped what I was doing, started mumbling to myself, and then took off to the locker room to jot the idea down before it was gone. 

This also happens when I’m driving, when I’m trying to fall asleep at night, and - embarrassingly - while in the middle of a conversation with another person. 

I’m not generally scatterbrained, but I’m finding that getting deep into writing a long story really messes with a person’s mind.  Hopefully I’ll get the book finished before people start to wonder if I should be sent off for some sort of…uh…assistance.

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