The Elusive Writing Epiphany

 

The Elusive Writing Epiphany

 

As a writer, I definitely have days when I’m slogging through, trying to get to my word count for the day and hoping for something exciting that will keep me—and my potential future readers—eager to continue.

 

Then there are days when my characters enjoy talking to one another, and something emerges that I hadn’t quite expected. And that’s exciting! Encouraging! I feel better about the world, or at least my small corner of it.

 

But every so often, alchemy occurs. My characters take actions that throw my whole plot up in the air. Actions I certainly hadn’t predicted. And all I can do is sit back and take a deep breath.

 

Take my character Lucy, in my new novel for adults, Off to Join the Circus. Lucy, a 35-year-old middle school English teacher and the youngest of three daughters in a close-knit family, recently went through a divorce.

 

Both Lucy and I firmly believed that Lucy and her former husband, Jeff, went their separate ways because they couldn’t agree about having children. Lucy wanted a child; Jeff did not. Their divorce was fairly amicable.

 

But one day, Lucy and I had a sudden realization about Jeff and their marriage (I won’t get into it, in case anyone wants to read Off to Join the Circus) that caused us to rethink absolutely everything. I was stunned—as, of course, was Lucy.

 

The elusive writing epiphany. It appears when you least expect it. So here’s to more writing epiphanies in 2024, for us all.

 

--Deborah Kalb