Write Like Your Hair is On Fire

... and only words can put it out.

I can't recall where I first came across that quote about writing - but right away, I loved it.

It refers more to getting first drafts down in this explosive and energetic fashion, always moving forward - rather than the slower, brain-stretching activity of editing a story into shape. The editing I am referring to is not copy-editing, making sure you kill unneeded gerunds (adverbs almost always die on sight) or when I have forgotten, again, to put the apostrophe in "lets"; I am talking about the work of understanding how a story is told, and how it can be told better. That's some B.A.editing (big-ass).

But what happens when you don't have the time to really do that - as in, what if you are writing a serialized story where you have promised to post something every Friday. And by that I mean, EVERY FRIDAY!

The smart thing to do would be either have a bunch of it written before hand (I only had about 5 chapters), or write a bit every day so you can leave room for editing, and still hit the Friday deadline. That's a pretty damn good way to do it - unfortunately, I never seem to be that organized.

So I have decided, instead, to use the aforementioned Hair on Fire method, or HOF (who doesn't love acronyms? If you do not love acronyms, Please Leave This Blog Now - PLTBN).

The beginning of Bent Highway was simply a man (M), unleashed in time. Sure, there were echoes of Billy Pilgrim from Slaughterhouse Five, P.K. Dick's Time Out of Joint, or a number of time travel short stories bouncing around in my brain - but to be honest, they slid to the back when I let M onto the highway.

Writing the story has become quite a rush - and besides trying my best to clean up any typos, missing words or just bad sentences, the tale just comes out of me. I have never been a big plotter, more interested in following where a story goes (than forcing a direction). George Saunders in an interview talked about stories are similar to growing crystals - they form and develop in interesting and beautiful ways if you let them.

I don't pretend to fully understand M's story (is that a shocking admonition to readers? As in, I don't know what the hell I am doing? Or where the hell I am going.) But I am liking the journey. That sounds a little cheeseball. I am having a great time just letting this story grow like a crystal - and it's not like I have zero idea of where it is going. It is more like I have ideas of where it might go.

On that note, here's where I could use some feedback. I would love to hear any and all comments from readers of Bent Highway. I know since I started publishing every Friday the readership has grown by quite a bit. Pre-Bent Highway, this blog got a few hundred views a month. This has grown to close to 2,000 a month - with views on Fridays and Saturdays always the highest (Last Friday hit more than 200.)

So here's some question readers:

1. Where do you think M is going? And what is he about to do?

2. Who does Chalk Girl want M to save? 

3. Who is Walt?

I look forward to your comments.

And as always, stay tuned for this Friday.