Writing Tip of the Week

“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist….”

The last words of Union General John Sedgwick while observing Confederate troops during the Battle of Spotsylvania.

Embrace the Unexpected

??Like Gen. Sedgwick, writers are often struck by the unexpected. Unlike the unfortunate general, when something unexpected hits, such as idea, writers can put the unexpected to work.

??I don’t plot my novels. My entire output of words, sentences, paragraphs and pages is based on the unexpected. I subscribe to the adage, “no surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” My characters continue to toss unexpected guidance from left field – sometimes from way out in left field. But when I listen, the unexpected idea works and nine times out of ten it works far better than anything I could have ever plotted.

??For example, anything, and I mean anything, can set me off when writing a novel. Not being tied down by plot elements, character descriptions or other pre-writing baggage, I’m free to follow the left-field path as far as it goes. A good example of how this works can be found in my latest work-in-progress. I started the novel with nothing more than a funny title that just popped into my head: Gabby Durango and His Rangy Texans vs. the Evil Minions of Mu Fanchu. That’s it. That’s all I had to work with, but confident in the Writing Into The Dark process (no plotting), I pushed on.

??Even though I don’t plot, ideas to roam about the back of my head. It’s inevitable. Before tapping out the first “it was a dark and stormy night” passage, I had the feeling that the novel might involve some cranky old-timer back in the Wild West. Within less than a page, I heard “Incoming!” as the ideas bombarded me from left field. My main character turned out to be a 19-year-old young man from the bayou country who was running from a shotgun wedding just before World War I. Go figure. I’m 60,000 words into the work. So far, my hero has been joined by a well-educated Negro butler from New England, the rich kid who is guided by the butler, a traveling circus manager, a na?ve sidekick with an interest in movies, and a luscious prostitute who is also on the run. The Wild West did make an appearance, but only as my characters passed through on the way to Hollywood. I don’t know if the evil Mu Fanchu and is evil minions will ever show up. ?And to make things interesting, Gabby Durango is yet to make an appearance! I really haven’t a clue as to what happens next. And that’s the best part.

??Whatever happens will come in from left field.

??I can’t wait to make the catch.

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Quote of the Week: “We never do anything well till we cease to think about the manner of doing it.” William Hazlitt

Recommended Reading: Grains of Sand – Tales of a Paranormal Life by Brian Cano

Recommended Site: ?https://hestanbrough.com/

Shameless Self-Promotion

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