The Best Part of Writing
My favorite part of writing is when my own story surprises me. And it happens every time. I will be writing my story and eventually, paint myself into a corner or find myself confronted with an inconsistency when all of a sudden, something that I wrote earlier—something that maybe didn’t even make sense at the time—comes to me and I realize that my solution was there all along, right where I put it. It’s like finding an Easter Egg in a video game, but one that you put there for yourself without even knowing about it.
What’s amazing about finding your own Easter Eggs is that it’s almost a guarantee that your reader will be surprised. If you didn’t even know it was going to happen when you were writing it, how could it tip off your reader?
This happened to me today while writing the penultimate chapter of my work in progress, a domestic suspense novel. I’d already written the ending, but there was a piece of the puzzle that I just couldn’t get to fit right at the climax of the story. What I had written just didn’t ring true. There was also a question that I planted early in the story that needed to be answered, and I had no idea what the answer was.
For the last week, I’ve been writing three times as much as I’ve been keeping, trying to work out the solution. And then, finally, it just came to me!
Now, of course, I have to go back and do my big edit. This will involve fixing all of the pieces leading up to the climax that don’t fit any more because of what changed while I wrote the book, but hey, that’s the point of editing.
Funny enough, just as I was thinking about sharing this on my Substack, I got a notification that The Shit About Writing posted it’s weekly podcast and it’s about the same thing, Those Aha! Moments That Arrive at the 80,000 Word Mark. Anyhow, as always, it’s a great piece about an element of the craft and it’s good to know that I’m not the only nut who sometimes has no idea what they are writing until they get to the end.
Storygraph Give Away
A reminder if you are on here because you won my Storygraph Giveaway and didn’t receive your book via Bookfunnel to please contact me here or at contact@sarenastraus.com so that we can resend your book!
If you won the book and you read it, please, pretty please post a review!!!
Upcoming Appearances
My appearances at panels and book festivals for 2025 are starting to line up! Here is the current list. If you’ll be in the area or at one of my panels, please come by and say hello!
Please note that tickets for The Write Women Bookfest in Bowie, MD WILL sell out, so get them while they are hot!
https://www.thewritewomenbookfest.org/2023-tickets.html#/
Also, Sound & Fury did a wonderful review of DeInception. Please check it out and subscribe to her fantastic podcast where you can find your next great sci fi, fantasy or horror read!
I hope to see you soon!!!