Writing is like vomiting

Interior kitchen. White glossy cabinets. Concrete counters. Approx. 10:30am. A Milk Cafe is running, whirling and heating skim milk destined to be a hot chocolate.

Me (measuring out chocolate): I’m just so scattered brained today. Which, for some reason, is always the case the day after a really successful writing session. I mean, obviously, I’ll write today but it’s going to take some effort to focus.

Michael (slathering cashew butter and jam on a toasted English muffin): Writing is like vomiting. You just get it all out, purge the idea onto the page. And after you vomit you need to eat, fuel up again.

Right.

I don’t usually feel the need to eat after I vomit … but I conceded the point because I understood the metaphor Michael was going for. Ha.

So … I am a little scattered today. I got the first draft of the first chapter of the Amplifier Series prequel written yesterday. It came out at 5,700+ words, which is closer to the length of the chapter of a novel, not the novella I thought I was writing. So that is interesting and pretty much ruins the ‘marketing direction’ I’d been planning for the series, because the ‘hero’ (and yes, that does need to be in quotes) doesn’t show up until book one and the main series takes place seven years after the prequel.

The muse apparently thinks I’m getting to comfortable with this writing gig. Thankfully between the story editor, Michael, and me we can usually work around (work through? work with?) the desires of the muse. So I’ll just need to figure out a smooth transition between the prequel and book one. A character changes a lot in seven years!