I had a writing breakthrough yesterday. I’ve been working on a picture book manuscript for years. I love the basic idea, obviously, or else I wouldn’t have tinkered away at it for so long, but haven’t been able to get the opening right. I must have at least 10 different versions of the story on my computer, but they’re all variations on a theme, and while I’ve made countless little changes here and there, nothing has quite given me the results I want. Still, I’m nothing if not persistant, and I’ve refused to give up on this story in the hopes that one day inspiration will strike.
Well, I am happy to say that after several years, inspiration has finally struck. At least, I hope it has. I just made the changes yesterday, so we’ll see how I feel about them in a few days, but right now I’m feeling pretty darn chuffed. I’ve said before that inspiration can be found in the unlikeliest of places, and this lightening bolt came out of a Youtube commercial! I like to have music playing while I write, and I was listening to a Youtube playlist when a commercial came on, advertising an online writing masterclass with Margaret Atwood. While I’ve never been a huge fan of Ms. Atwood, her many successes and accolades prove that she at least knows a thing or two about writing. I planned to click through the commercial like I usually do, but since I was writing anyway, I decided to let it play and see what she had to say. Since the commercial was promoting the online workshop I didn’t think she’d give away too much for free, but wouldn’t you know it, the very first thing she said was just the lightening bolt I needed. She talked about reworking a well-known fairy tale so that the action started in the middle of the story, rather than at the beginning, thus throwing readers for a bit of a loop from the very first words in order to create something fresh and enticing.
I…did not do that. That is to say I didn’t rework my entire story’s structure so that it strictly starts in media res, but I did take a hatchet to the beginning where I had some exposition and thoroughly killed my darlings, which resulted in a much leaner, more efficient opening. It doesn’t open as you might expect it to, and I like it! I like it a lot! I haven’t felt this fired up about writing in a few months now, especially with all the madness going on in the world, and it feels good to actually want to write again.
So friends, don’t give up on that simmering manuscript that you’ve had on the back burner for who knows how long. You never know when a bolt of inspiration might strike from out of the blue and completely change your perspective! And for free, too!