It hit me yesterday while I was out and about…
At last I have a title for the new manuscript.
Experience has taught me it is an excellent idea to come up with a title as soon as possible. Even a “working title” is better than nothing. Once a work in progress has a name it ceases to be just a collection of words: it has taken on an identity. (But I’m not sharing that title yet.)
It came to mind hours after I had written this scene. “So, friends, what are we going to do today?”: that was my late uncle’s challenge to himself as he started writing each day. I have unapologetically borrowed it.
Once I’ve asked that question of them, it’s off they go. Stop being yourself, I remind myself. Go there and become them…
This time, “they decided” that “they” would recall the traumatic summer of 1794, and one of them first encountering someone who would come to mean the world to him and for whom he would risk everything:
That was a blank page at 8 o’clock yesterday morning. It is incomplete and messy in spots, and will be cleaned up eventually. (I even noticed a spelling error: at one point, “their” should be “there.”) Rarely do you “nail it” during a brainstorm or a first effort – but you have to start somewhere.
Overall you hope the title captures the spirit of the tale. And you battle day in and day out to get the words to dazzle. Ultimately what matters most is not where you start, or how you made it, but how it all comes together and reads when it’s finished.
That is one example of how I do it. There is no “easy” way. As I posted two days ago: if you want to write… you have to write.📝💻📚
Have a good weekend, wherever you are.😊
R. J. Nello 