Shiny Ideas & Snowy Adventures

Last week, I met with the super awesome L.T. Host for a little pow-wow on my book. She read the 10 pages I had and after some feedback, some margaritas and an arsenal of "How to Write" books she loaned to me, I'm feeling really good about moving forward with this whole writing thing. I think I can do this!

Armed with my "I can do this"-ness, I went straight home and wrote two more pages. This time I introduced a new character, Maggie's best friend, who I can totally picture in my mind and had fun writing some dialogue with the two friends. YAY-NESS! Then it was the weekend and my hubby and I had a scary snowy adventure that involved driving through the mountains in heavy snowfall and me thinking "Please don't let us skid off the edge of this cliff", and then took Sunday to have a blissfully dull day of errands and house cleaning. That was much better than thinking we might plummet to our deaths (OK not exactly, but kind of - we Southern Californians are not used to snowy roads).

Then, last night I was minding my own business - showering of all things - and was hit smack in the forehead with a...

BRIGHT, SHINY IDEA!

This super awesome idea creates a new twist to Maggie's story and opens so many possibilities. It was so funny because earlier that day I read this post by Mia Hayson about what to do when you get a shiny new idea! Mentally following the flowchart, I decided to use the only writing utensil I had with me - my finger! I wrote some quick notes in the steam on the shower door so I wouldn't lose it. Then, I quickly finished rinsing, jumped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and ran for a pen and paper. I didn't have much time - the steam on the door was fading already! I made it back and wrote down everything on the door, and then some. The ends of a few words faded before I could write them, but I'm pretty sure I got everything.

Phew.

This was my first experience with a shiny new idea that hit me like a stampeding yak, so now I know what you guys are talking about and how thrilling it is. But, this shiny idea also complicates things A LOT. I may need to create one of Adam Heine's outlines to help sort through this overflow of ideas. Still, all of this makes me even more excited to continue this journey.

Also, I'm attending my very first critique group on Thursday. I'm very excited to get new eyes on my writing and to help tear it apart because frankly, I need that. So yay for ideas! Yay for critique partners! Yay for margaritas! And yay for snow (provided we don't die)!

BTW, here's a pic of the snowy adventure (before it got dark and scary)...

And here it is before we descended the mountain. See the road? Yeah, we drove on that. Yikes!