A friend emailed me a blog link, thinking that I’d be interested. And she was right. One night, I clicked on the link and read it not realizing that the link was a post from November 2nd. HOLY COW!! The author spoke to my writer soul and made my neurons sizzle like butter in a hot pan. Normally, I can lay my head on the pillow and crash within a few minutes. It’s what three kids will do to you, but after reading, it took me a whole hour to fall asleep. And the next morning, in the shower, I had an epiphany about my character, so intense, that my eyes leaked tears. I am not kidding.
The post talks about getting the writer to connect with their real life experiences that unknowingly forms the raw material for their manuscript. I had no idea I incorporated my personal feelings from the sudden passing of my mother-in-law to my main character until that aha moment in the shower. (The shower is one of my favorite places to brainstorm. It’s quiet, I’m relaxed, and my thoughts wander across a blank canvass.)
You can’t plan for these moments and you can’t force them, believe me I’ve tried to bribe them with chocolate and other presents. They come when they are ready and you have to be prepared to embrace that gift. You know what? The same friend who gave me the blog, had her aha moment at church. Gotta love the irony of a horror/paranormal writer getting a little help from above.
Where have you experienced an aha moment?
Definitely.
Normally they came when I got stuck, and didn’t write for several days/weeks. Then I’d be walking around, and think “oh! That’s what he needs to do!” and then I’d write down some gibberish on my iphone notepad, and then write it as soon as I could.
My new favorite “aha” moments, come from surprises I’ve found in editing. Certain phrases I wrote, often foreshadow events I had no idea would come, but when I find them. I keep them/refine them, and get a warm “I’m not completely stupid” feelings.
I will say that for some reason, if I watch “The Phantom of the Opera” (not the terrible movie version) from start to finish. I find something in that story, that helps me out of a jam. I have no idea why (as my story doesn’t really resemble that one) but it seems to work. Such as me realizing my play within a novel should be a tragedy and not have a happy ending. This really broke open so many things for me, and made the last 1\3rd of my book really fun to write.
The T.V. version of Phantom really is horrible.
I haven’t had an aha yet while editing, but I can’t wait too.