There are some days you trudge through your writing and each word on the page takes effort and consideration.
There are the good days where you get in the spirit, and the writing flows freely enough to keep the fingers typing or the ink flowing.
And then there are map days. Map days are when the story unfolds before you like a map, and you’ve got to jot down the directions as quickly as possible before the paper blows away. These are the days where the ideas come so fast you have to go from actually writing the story to just sketching the quick details of each scene before they fade away.
For me, it’s like watching a movie in my head, and I’ve only got a few seconds (and words) to describe each scene. These are my favorite days because, when they happen, they usually unfold the rest of the story for me, so even if I don’t finish it that day, all the directions are already laid out, like a paint-by-number just waiting to be filled in.
Today was a map day for me. The kids were away at the grandparents, and my husband was chugging away downstairs on his own work. I’d done the dishes, folded some laundry, worked a little on my day job, and had just finished Neil Gaiman’s last Masterclass video, and thus had no excuses keeping me from writing. So, I grabbed the story I’d been working on the night before and told myself I had an hour.
It was hard at first. It’s always hard to start writing, at least for me. Inspiration always seems to come when I’m as far as possible from being able to pick up a pen. When I sit down to write, it seems like a chore at first and I’m often talking myself into starting (even though deep down it’s something I __want__ to do). By the end, it’s usually something I’m glad I took the time to do.
I chugged out a few paragraphs. I crossed out a few lines. I did it again. Crossed out an entire paragraph. Then, suddenly I was on page two, and then on page three, and then my hour was nearly up, and the map was before me and I was scribbling the rest of the story on sticky notes as fast as it came to me, which was pretty damn fast. I didn’t have time to write the whole first draft, but the whole story is there, just waiting for the minor details.
Days like this are why I keep writing. Days like this are __magic__. Writing is the only thing that makes me feel this way. Writing is the only craft I’ve ever done that gives me a feeling of __foresight__. I painted and drew for years, but I was never able to ENVISION finished paintings the way I can sometimes envision stories. It really does feel like a muse is guiding me, like I’m pulling something from the other side of a veil.
I never know when my map days are going to come. With some stories they don’t, and with some they come when I least expect it. (I barely liked this story when I started it yesterday, today I love it).
I hope every writer or artists reading this has some map days of their own.