Here's to Epiphany!
At my River Writers gathering the other night, we were extolling the musical sound of 'E' words. Okay, I was doing the extolling; the rest of the group was sitting back, laughing at me. What can I say? I am drawn to words beginning with 'E' -- egregious, epistle, eulogy, emote, ephemeral, enclave, enigmatic, ensconce, etcetera.
I believe the whole 'E' word diversion began with the discussion of epiphany and how wonderful it is when it occurs in our writing-- which it did for me yesterday as I reread the just completed Chapter 5 of Zach & Zoe 2. The chapter contained everything the outline dictated, and I was more or less satisfied with how it had turned out, so I automatically began thinking about what must go into Chapter 6. It would start with an analysis of the novel's problem by Zach & Zoe -- central characters extraordinaire. At this point I referred to my outline to see what other
developments were scheduled to ensue, and to my surprise, found no mention of said analysis. Say what? It had to go there. I knew it. I could feel it. It was intuitive. (I like a lot of 'I' words too.) And though I am a very logical, analytical person, I NEVER resist my intuition. It's always right.
And that's when I had the epiphany. Suddenly I knew how the story had to proceed. It was like playing a card game. You move the cards in your hand around and around, and then you pick up one card off the deck and WHAM! what was just a mish-mash of cards a second ago has morphed into a winning hand.
I shall still refer to the outline as I work my way toward the end of the book, but I shall be shuffling, adding, and eliminating as I go. It's like the story knows where it's going now, and I just have to follow.
Exhilaration!