Feeling the Flow

by Julie Coulter Bellon

I’ve been working on a new book and it just hasn’t been flowing for me the last few weeks. Every word seemed to have to be pulled from my toes and I was getting frustrated. That doesn’t usually happen to me very often and the joy of writing seemed to be gone. I had some deadlines coming up so that was putting even more pressure on and I was feeling it–going to the computer seemed to finally be "work."

After struggling for a few hours one afternoon, I stepped away from the computer desk and the pitifully low word count and started to prepare for my son’s birthday party. Within the hour, the guests had arrived and we went to the swimming pool first. I sat there, supervising the swimming children, but stewing about the story, and how it just didn’t seem to be coming together.

The nine year old boys kept me busy from that point on, however, and I didn’t have much time to think about anything else after that. We did all the usual birthday things, presents and games, cake and ice cream and just after I snapped a picture of my son blowing out his candles, it hit me.

There it was, as clear as day in my mind. The direction my story needed to go in and the next two chapters on how to get there. I couldn’t wait to finish serving the children their cake so I could run to the computer and write down everything that had just flashed through my mind. It amazed me that I hadn’t thought of it before, the sequence seemed so logical.

I went to the computer chair—a place that I had dreaded coming to for days—and sat down to write. The words flowed from my fingertips, effortlessly, the scene streaming onto the screen. I felt almost giddy with the thrill of it, the joy of writing that I’d had the privilege of feeling many times before. I thought I may have lost it in the shuffle of deadlines and edits, but there it was. The pure, unadulterated passion for a character and a story.

I got the two chapters written down before the last child had finished his cake and ice cream and I have to say I wore a smile on my face for the rest of the evening. I know there will have to be revisions, but the story seemed to finally have life breathed into it and that was enough for me.

Some may call that little flash I had the Writer’s Muse, others may call it inspiration, or perhaps my mind just needed to think of something else for a while before it could really "see" where I was going. It was interesting to me, however, when it came. I’ve had little flashes like that before, but at the oddest times, like after the cutting of a birthday cake, or first thing in the morning before I’m fully awake, or in the bath or on vacation playing mini-golf. I'm willing to bet other writers have this happen to them, so I'm curious---if you have had it happen to you, where were you when it did? Do you carry paper around with you just in case?

Inquiring minds want to know.