Admittedly, I’m quite new to writing in a serious way. This is the longest thing I’ve ever written.  I just hit 38,000 words and this is just one of the things I’ve noticed.

Sometimes I skip ahead a bit and see what a character is about to say or do.  It’s the most bizarre feeling.  Yeah, he’s going to say this, oh wait, she’s going to do that.  I feel like we’re working together when this happens.  I can see right ahead to the end of the book and I know things that are going to have to happen and I know where we’re all going to be when it ends.  I can see facial expressions and hear dialogue and I just can’t wait to get to that point.

Sometimes, however, I get no warning about what is about to happen.  I’m in the middle of writing a scene and someone does something completely unexpected.  That happened on Saturday in the library.  I wonder how many times it’s going to happen between now and the end and what effect that will have on the end of the story.