In which the author returns from outer space

I really tried to think of something terribly cool to do, to make this a fashionable comeback to my blog. The closest thing I had to an idea was to post an entry on 6/6/06, because that's trendy…but instead, I wound up spending the day doing some good writing. So while that may not be fashionable, it is fairly in keeping with me. It's a good return.

Let's see. Well, my work in progress (which some days has a title, and some days does not) is going well. It's very well laid out in my mind, beginning middle and end. This is a bit of rarity, and certainly it never falls into place the way I'd planned it out. I was therefore delighted to discover yesterday, when I wrote the end of part one, that it ended exactly like I wanted it to. I think that's probably a real gift. You'll never get the story you have in mind down exactly, but if you're lucky, you'll get something close, or something good out of it, at least. I got what I wanted, and it was good, to boot.

Another interesting thing to note (if, that is, you're interested in my writing habits) was that as the action got faster and faster toward the end of part one, I switched from writing on the computer to writing by hand on notebooks, sprawling text across page after page of legal pads, and then typing it in when I was done. And now, as I enter into part two and the action slows back down, I find I've switched back to the computer.

This is a really good idea, and something that the writers out there (of the multitudes reading this) might consider trying. I found that as the action got faster and faster, writing by hand meant I had to slow down and very deliberately consider, rather than just getting swept away in the rush of things. And now that things have slowed down in the story, writing rapidly by computer means I keep up my intertia even though I'm providing it now, not the story. It's a wonderful counterbalance.

I had a wonderful dissertation on something Stephen King said in On Writing, which I was saving for this entry…except now, as I type, I find that I cannot quite remember it. This further contributes to my absent-minded writerly-sort image, and so I guess it's all right. Probably, it will turn up. If it doesn't, I'll re-read the book.

The work beckons, of course, because I'm having too much fun writing it to stop. Assuming I get a good bit done, I'll come back and tell you about my tea adventures. They were adventurous.