When Writing Feels Like Jazz

Riffing on a theme. Starting at one point that seems promising and then soaring off in any direction you feel like going. Spending time writing a conversation between two characters that you will probably never use in a finished novel, but doing it anyway because you’re enjoying the process so much.

Is this how it feels to play jazz? I wouldn’t know. I’ve always been more the earnest, super-serious guy who spends years learning his scales so that he can follow the music on the sheet in front of him. I’m not an improvisor. I’m a planner. And a plugger.

Yet now I’m improvising material for a third volume of my historical fiction series that started with A FALSE DAWN. Imagining events and conversations with supporting characters from the first two novels. Finding short stories to write instead of grand narratives. Not planning with an outline, as I usually do.

If you write or pursue any kind of art, you may have gotten to this point long before I did. I hope it’s as much fun for you as it’s becoming for me. What I’m writing like jazz may have no place in my official, published work. I don’t care. Sometimes you have to capture the joy. Sometimes you have to write because it feels so damn good.