What I Love About Writing (Today)

I love when the story adds elements that I didn’t know about, but that were always a part of the plot, and the world in which it is happening.

I was just writing for my Wednesday One Hour, and threw in something that I knew nothing about.  I figured it would turn into something, but I didn’t know what.  In this case, it was a vial of green liquid, given to a specific character to use.  Oh, I’m writing a fantasy for middle graders.  Anyway.  So, the main character hands her this vial, and tells her to smash it on the wall if everything is safe, or to shake it if something’s wrong.  I promise you, I have no idea where this vial came from.  It’s like it was always there.  It’s like I had made a whole plan for it.  Because, when it was smashed on the wall, something amazing happened.  The story took a whole new shape.  It morphed into something perfect.  It became what it was meant to be.  It opened the narration and revealed more of the magic of this world than even I knew about.  

It’s the best part of writing.  We say that we’re in control – I’m the author, aren’t I?  But I’m just the communicator.  That’s something I’ve always believed.  This story … it exists somewhere in the universe, in the atoms that float around my writing desk.  It’s being told through my fingertips as they type, but every time I write, I am surprised by something that happens, something that develops, what happens with a character … something always shocks me.  I sit there with my jaw wide open thinking, “What!? Did that really just happen!?” It’s the exact same experience as when I read someone else’s work.

That’s what I love about writing today.  What do you love about writing today?