Eureka!

Being a complete and utter panster I never know how a book is going to pan out. I always start with the kernel of an idea and expand from that. For example, my NV entry arose when I was daydreaming in the kitchen whilst cooking dinner. An image came into my head of a nutty Irish woman sitting on a bench under a plum tree being asked what had brought her to Tuscany; and the woman theatrically replying that she was suffering from a broken heart. From that tiny kernel the whole book sprung. I knew the Irish woman (who I called Meghan), was funny and outspoken but it was not until I was half-way through writing it that her real inner conflict came to the fore. And that is what I call my Eureka Moment.
Today, I had my Eureka Moment with my current WIP and, for me, it is such a fantastic feeling. This story also started with a kernel - a woman handcuffing herself to a man's desk. I am just over 20,000 words in, the story is flowing beautifully (at least in my head ha ha ha) and I have felt comfortable knowing exactly who my heroine is and what her inner conflict is (she revealed herself early on). But, even though I knew what kind of a man my hero is today, I have been waiting for him to reveal his backstory to me, the story that made him the man he is today. I got 1,500 words done this afternoon and then, just minutes before I had to collect the boys from school, my hero's past came to me in a flash, along with how this affects his and the heroines future.
And now I cannot wait to sign off from this blog and plough on with the story confident that all the tools are there for me to get happily to the end without tearing my hair out waiting for the Eureka Moment to come. For me the, the next best bit is doing the second draft and making sure that everything I now know about my characters shines through for the reader. But I will save that for another post.
Take care all xxx