Ow, My Brain Hurts

Today and yesterday I have been writing like a madwoman. I have days when the pages just flow, and I keep going as fast as my little fingers will type. Then there are the slow days when I know something isn’t right, but I can’t put my finger on it. I’ll rewrite a scene and delete pages for several hours, feeling like a complete hack because I can’t seem to make forward progress.

But so far, the story is starting to take shape. I’m very much a seat-of-the-pants type of writer. I like being surprised by my characters and sometimes they do things that make me say, “Ooooh! I didn’t know that about you!” And other times I want to smack them down and say, “Oh, no, you did not just do that. Tell me you didn’t do that!!” It’s a love-hate relationship between us.

What I really like discovering are the little details, the habits that make a character compelling. I’m re-reading one of my “comfort reads,” Nora Roberts’s Born in Fire. Her heroine Maggie likes her tea strong enough to walk. Those kinds of details make a character come alive for me, as well as the snappy dialogue. I’ve nearly worn that book out, I’ve read it so many times.

Some other books I’ve read 5 or more times are: Clan of the Cave Bear, Anne of Green Gables, Dark Lover, Lover Awakened, The Mists of Avalon, and Morning Glory.

How about you? What are your “comfort reads?”