I can see the future...that I wrote down.

A lot of authors talk about how writing has a therapeutic quality. I won’t go that far as I lack the personal insight to say it’s more than something I just really enjoy. However, I have noticed a phenomena that dovetails with that aspect of writing. I mean, of course, the predictive element of writing “what you know”.

My characters are not people that I know. Some of them are composites, some of them are in parts of situations that I have heard of, or personally experienced, but the version I write down has about as much relationship to reality as grape Kool-Aid does to the wine producing fruit.

But the part that I find really interesting is having written a bunch of stuff down, which is mostly how these people I have invented would operate under particular circumstances, I’m having a hard time ignoring how there are real life parallels to my imaginary people’s lives. I think this actually means that there is very little that is actually new under the sun and if a person takes the time to capture a few patterns in a story you can make some accurate predictions that are applicable in a variety of situations.

What I mean is, since starting this project every time someone mentions something that I am using in my book I feel an odd sense of proprietary interest. I was talking to a friend last night who really doesn’t like the small town she came from and it was all I could do not to shout “I’m writing a book about that”. Fortunately, I know, rather than feel, that my recreation is not objectively captivating to everyone who happens to stumble on a topic that I cover.

Seriously though, all that predictive stuff sounds like a bunch of Charlie Kaufman or Stephen King speak. I have no intention of having the characters in my story arrive at the author’s house looking for answers. You can call me old fashioned, but I think the fourth wall is unappreciated.

So in terms of the actual progress of the book, I was finding that I was rushing again. By this I mean I set down to write a scene that I intended to be more and am finding the action moves much more quickly than I thought. Which all is a way of saying this little novella is likely going to be fewer pages than I’d hoped. I have had many portions including most of the first chapter written for years. I finished the ending before I started this project and I’ve got portions of several of the intervening chapters.

While I prefer to write from start to finish, without jumping around, I’m finding that because my time for the project is limited I have to approach it in portions of work, which means sometimes moving forward in the narrative and working on the part that I remember my plan for. Rather than just reading through the first 60 pages every time I sit down to write to ensure I’m still in the right style.