The Magic Keeps me Going

by Kristi Belcamino

I'm knee-deep in the middle of writing my third book in my mystery series and I've been slogging through the hell all writers know as "the middle" when I realized what was missing.

Somewhere along the line of writing a novel, past the infatuation stage when really the writing has just become plain old hard work, there is something magical that happens. The words, the story, the characters and the people come to life.

This is what keeps me at it.

I'm trudging along, putting my butt-in-the-chair, pounding out my minimum one thousand words a day, feeling lackluster, when suddenly IT happens.

Here's what IT is for me. I start thinking about the characters and the story at random times in my life when I'm not writing. This signals that magical moment when my story has come alive. It has taken on a life of it's own separate from me.

This magic is what keeps me in that chair writing when I really want to be reading the new book I just bought at Once Upon A Crime, or am tempted to surf the web or look at cute boots on Pinterest.

It's the magic. And luckily, it appears every single time I write a book. The mystery is in not knowing WHEN it will appear. So as with each book I write, I will continue plugging away, trudging through the middle of the book waiting for that magical moment when the story comes to life.

Do any other writers out there feel that magic? That moment when suddenly the words on paper take on a life of their own?