I like to lie awake at night, working out details and plots, the ideas behind the words – Writing is all about ideas and words, of course, but there’s a difference between them and that difference either allows me to stay in bed or drives me out of it.

If it’s words that are flowing through my mind, actual dialogue or description, no doubt about it, I have to get at that keyboard and capture them because I’ve learned that when there is a handful of those wonderful things coming at me, there’s likely to be the entire flock about to swoop in, and I want every last one of them. If I don’t capture them, by morning they will be gone.

Ideas, on the other hand,  don’t float away. Ideas are both detailed and structural. Detailed ideas are more along the lines of how something happens, while the structural ideas form the backbone of the plot, the What and Why of the story.

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The structure is less about words. It’s the plan of action that dictates the direction of the story and the backdrop the story is told against. It is the factory floor where compartments and even characters are manufactured, the lab where chemistry is mixed, and the drawing board where problems are sorted out.

The joy of writing is seeing the coming together of structural ideas, detailed ideas and those beautiful, fleeting creatures that are words.

I love restless nights when it’s structural ideas that are talking to me. I can enjoy the convolutions without having to leave my nice warm bed.

Which is always good – especially in Winter.

Have a great day/evening, everyone.

😀

Cheers!

Allyson