I was fully prepared to draft my current Work in Progress.

Character Sheets were done.

Scenes were sketched out.

Themes were at the ready.

And then one of my characters showed up on the page and had a secret.

via GIPHY

A secret they hadn’t bothered to share with me before.

This is both the writer’s greatest hope and greatest fear.

It means that the muse has taken over.

It means your characters have come to life.

It means a major reworking of plot.

via GIPHY

Le Sigh.

In the case of my Work in Progress, the character with the secret was a secondary one.

She arrived fully formed, like Mary Poppins answering the Banks’ ad for a nanny, and proceeded to pull her secret out of her bottomless bag.

via GIPHY

It was a helpful secret, so it got to stay.

And it made me happy, because it reminded me of how, regardless how much I prepare in advance, the story will reveal itself as it will.

The preparation was wonderful. I felt very ready to write this book.

But the magic is in the actual writing and editing.

And my secondary character was kind enough to remind me of that!

I’ve now written 51,000 words in 16 days. I fully expect to get to the end of draft one before month’s end.

I expect more surprises in the revision process.

And I couldn’t be any happier! Has that ever happened to you?