Answers While I'm Dreaming

 

     I'm not sure why this happens, but many mornings when I awaken, some epiphany awakens within me at the same time. It is as though during the night my mind is working and in the morning it presents its answer to me. One time I remember waking with the understanding how by taking the angles of the location of a star in the sky from two separate places on earth, you can figure out the distance of that star from the earth. (Note: I didn't figure out exactly how, just that it suddenly made sense to me how it could be done.) More recently, because I am taking a logic's class in my academic studies, I have awoken to more logic related answers. This morning. however, my awakening epiphany had more to do with how I could finish my latest novel's second draft within three months.

      I finished the 50,000 word first draft of my book A Coward's Solace during November and have not gone back to the book since. That is not unusual for me. After focusing on NaNoWriMo during November, besides celebrating the holidays with my family, I also have a lot of other work to catch up on that I didn't do so during December, I normally put the book aside for the month and focus on other things. Now that December is over however, I knew that I really needed to get back to it because I intend to have the book published by the end of the year.
      This December I had Soldiers Don't Cry, The Locket Saga Continues published. I intend to publish A Coward's Solace this coming December so my goal for January, February and March is to add another 30,000 words to the book and have it ready for my editor by the first of April so that the book can be published by December.
      The idea of writing another 30,000 words in three months seemed like a lot to me. I thought there's no way I can write that much in three months.
      My mind, however, saw that getting the answer was important to me, so this morning it presented me with the answer. If I broke down the 30k into daily word allotments, I would need to write only have to write 400 words every day of the week with weekends free for catch up or additional editing.
      On top of that, my mind gave me the added bonus of letting me know that I should add another scene to the front of A Coward's Solace and make it from the viewpoint of my protagonist, Head of Stone.
      While it was still fresh in my mind this morning, I wrote that first scene which of course added just over 400 words. Because it is already the 5th, I will have to write 400 words every day in January to keep up,or up my word count if I get behind, but I believe that 400 words a day is an easy amount to write every day. (After all, I wrote 1667 every day in November!)
     I have two published novels in The Locket Saga. When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don't Cry, The Locket Saga Continues. A Coward's Solace will be the third book in the Locket Saga Series. My question today is, do you ever wake up with new ideas? If so, how do you capture these ideas? If not, try this: Before you go to bed tonight, write down a problem that you need to solve. In the morning, write down what you think the solution might be. If a solution doesn't come to you, write down anything that you think might help you find the solution. Do whatever it is that you wrote that might help you find the solution. If the solution still hasn't come to you, write down your problem again and ask your mind to solve it for you. Keep following these steps until you find a solution.