with mud or glue or persistence

have I mentioned our writing group? hmm... I guess I have, a bit.

we met last week after what seemed like a long, long time of not meeting, and this month it was my turn to submit pages for critiquing. I've been working on the alien-girl story for the last year or so, and it's been fun, and my fellow writers had lovely things to say about my description and my dialogue... but this month I found myself almost completely stuck (only slightly more stuck than usual). for a while now the others have been trying to figure out where I was going with my frayed-beyond-recognition bits of plot, and all I've been able to say to them has been, I have no idea.

and still I have no idea. nothing that could truly be called a clear, over-arching, or thematic idea anyway. my plot is still pretty ragged, made up of barely pasted-together chunks. but last week, after a few nights of scattered re-reading and sloppy revision, just as I was about to fall completely asleep, I had a split-second flickering of inspiration. some writers keep a pencil and a notepad next to their pillow at all times in case of such moments. I don't. despite having notebooks of every shape and color strewn about my bedroom and tins full of writing implements propped upon the windowsill and desk and makeshift nightstand, I confess I am not prepared to record ideas that come to me when I'm on the brink of unconsciousness. or ideas that come to me at any other inconvenient time, now that I think about it. I'm sure some people would love to point out how silly it is of me to trust myself to remember potentially perfect details about the stories I'm working on... but... well... yeah... so?

usually I just hope that somehow I will retain these sparkling ideas somewhere in my brain until the next time I sit down to write, or at least that I'll coincidentally re-think the same ideas at some more convenient moment. after all, if an idea isn't sticky enough to stay in my head, it must not have been that great, right?

in this case, I did remember the idea--though whether or not that means it's a great one I shouldn't speculate, I guess. at writing group the others seemed excited about it. we'll have to wait and see if inspires further narrative progress. I hope so.