17 hour marathon writing binge last night and into today. Slept about 5 hours and here I am again. I'v noticed that sometimes I just don't want to start writing. I realize it will be hard to put the book down once I start. One fix seems to be to decide what part of the creative process to push myself into. I don't always want to sit here and create detailed storyline and dialogue. That can seem like too much work sometimes. There is always research to do more of, organizing saved files of information, and facts to expand a little or a lot depending on how I feel. Once I get started, however, the choices seem to filter themselves in or out of my efforts at the keyboard. I may decide that I am not in the mood to expand a particular idea with dialogue and detail, so I block it out with an outline of ideas for future expansion when I am in the mood. That done, I open up a file of information or a research book and transfer snippets of facts to my novel's timeline, placing my characters into the setting. Now, I might be just putting the facts in and intending to move along to the next piece of data, but something grabs me about this data and creative juices begin to flow. Suddenly, I am totally engrossed in the story. Expanding ideas, creating dialogue, inventing twists and turns that seem so plausible when compared to the actual historical events that of course they happened just the way I am writing them. I have, at times, found myself saying things like, "The activities of the Grafton Freight Company saved the town of Grafton from oblivion in 1864." Which is an element of fiction I added that has turned out to be a mainstay of the novel. It has become so real to me, and fits into the actual history so well, that I have to be careful lest I get lost in the fiction as truth, instead of remembering the fiction is a very well written, dare I say inspired, nay brilliantly crafted, plausible fictional account of what really happened.

I assume other novelists go through these same configurations in their creative efforts, but I really don't know. I am, for the most part, winging this novelist thing. I only know what I have read. Writers read and writers write. The creative processes that writers experience on their way to being a successful writer are not known to me at this juncture, but I am still out here plugging away, learning more every day.