In Gestation

I received these questions from a fellow writer in response to my morning's blog post titled The Enduring Imaginative Life. He writes: “Interesting. So, for you, does the story emerge fully formed, from beginning to end? Or is it more of a sketch, an idea that then develops through the act of writing? Are you ever surprised yourself? Does the story ever take an unexpected turn?” I see many possibilities in answering this. The stories that reside in my head often do emerge fully formed, after many 'drafts' that I rework in my mind. But the act of writing, which I want to make distinct from a story's inception, lends itself to several possibilities. Once I dip my pen into the ink bottle and bring it to the page, my stories can take on a different life, but not to any extreme. They rarely veer from their original ideas or essence. There is, however, always in the act of writing, the possibility of surprise. And this is neither predictable nor imagined. The writing process itself could…