Inspiration is a Ninja

Good Monday, Readers.  Yes, you heard me right, 'Good Monday'.  And why is this Monday good when most are like catching your knuckle on a cheese grater?  Because inspiration struck today while I was working on the plot for my next novel.

At first, I thought it struck like lightning.  But the more I pondered it the more it seemed it struck quietly and from out of nowhere.  It struck like a ninja.  However it happened, I was grateful because it allowed me to surge ahead, nearly bringing me to to last few climactic scenes of the story.  And that's what's great about writing, those unexpected moments.  Most people see writing as plodding and sedentary, you sit hunched over a keyboard or notebook and just jot down what you're thinking.  Just plain slow.  And it is mostly like that.

But so is baseball, and people spend ridiculous amounts of time and money on that.  Then, like in baseball, there's that one pitch that suddenly breaks the game wide open.  Everyone is cheering or screaming, the players are hopping with their fingers clinging to the fence, the announcers rise to their feet, for some reason.  Everything is alive.  That happens in writing if you're doing it right.  You've got your scenes plotted on cards.  You know what your characters look like and how they're going to react.  Then there's that one line that comes out of nowhere.  Why did she say that?  That's not what I planned.  Oh, but it's good.  Then he'll say... then she'll say back... Holy shit, this just got good.

That's why inspiration is a ninja.  It comes out of nowhere, disrupts your well laid plans, and makes you look at the world differently, in a way you never did before.  That's when writing is freakin' awesome.