Dispelled

If you read Melissa's blog you'll know what I'm talking about. I've been following her progress through The Artist's Way and am enjoying discovering, vicariously, some of the hurdles and stumbling blocks that she finds as she goes through the process.

I found her entry today to be particularly interesting. I have been unofficially participating in NaNoWriMo and what Melissa has to say today is so true for me as well. I was surprised at how my "novel" develped, almost on its own. I've passed the requisite 50,000 words and have written the final chapter. I'm not going to do anything with my book, will probably not even save it. What surprised me was how each character came to life and how real they seemed to me.

I didn't have any plot line or even a clue as to where the story, as it developed, was going to go. About half way through I began to see how different events were related and how everything was going to come together. I'm pretty amazed that the whole thing just evolved.

When I was an undergraduate one of the literature classes I took was Popular Literature. We had to read several books that were from that year's list of blockbusters. One of the books was The Violated by Vance Bourjaily. I remember not wanting that book to end. When he finished writing the novel Boujaily said he wanted to give his characters more than he had but he couldn't give them anything but life.

Not that my book is anything or anywhere like his but I have that same feeling. I don't want it to be over. I'm still imagining what the people in my novel might be doing today. Oh, and there isn't one mention of knitting in the whole thing.