Anticipated Scenes

I’m not really a plotter when it comes to writing.

I treat the course of my series like I’m planning an epic road trip. I know what the destination is. I’ve marked down some must-see highlights along the route, but beyond that, I allow adventure to find me.

One of my favorite things is getting to those moments that I’ve planned out in advance. The ones that I’ve pictured in my head and dreamt of creating, sometimes for years. It can be a first kiss, an epic battle, a tragic death, a moment of glory. I’ve known how I wanted those moments to go, but I have to wait until the right point in the story to actually get to write them.

I recently had the absolute pleasure of writing a scene in the Ena of Ilbrea series that I have been waiting to write for so long. So LONG!

Don’t worry, I won’t tell you what it is, because I am thoroughly opposed to spoilers.

I’m really happy with the way the scene turned out, but sitting down to actually put the words down was terrifying. I had been waiting to put this scene into the computer for so long, and I didn’t want to screw it up. I wanted to honor my characters, give the readers the experience they deserve, and not let myself fail to meet my own expectations of how pivotal those few pages need to be in the grand scheme of the series.

It took me about fifteen minutes to convince myself to actually write, three false starts, and then like two hours to get the actual words that I’m happy with banged out.

A part of me is a little sad that the scene is now written. It’s over. I’m done with that image, and it’s time to move on to a new part of the journey.

Lucky for me, there are more epic moments yet to come for Ena.

I won’t worry about getting to the very end of the series for a while. I don’t think I can handle that yet. I’ll just take my time and enjoy the adventure.