Chapter 4: An Idea!

I was four chapters in, and I still had almost no idea of what I was going to write about. But having almost no idea is like being almost pregnant. The idea was there. I’d conceived something, but I just didn’t quite know what I had conceived. “Thank you for conceiving me,” said the idea. It was precocious and had developed the power of speech. What I had conceived was becoming an idea. “You’re quite welcome,” I answered. “Do you know what I am?” Asked the young idea. “I seem rather vague.” Then suddenly I realized what I’d conceived. It was brilliant! “You’re a great idea!” I said, “A brilliant one.” “I am?” The idea asked. “I am!” The idea said, as it realized what it was. “You’re going to star in a chapter of your own,” I said. “The next one.” Self-Referential Metanovel Writing for Dmmies A Talking Idea? “A talking idea?” Asks my inner critic, rhetorically “This one talks,” I say. “And you had a talking idea?” Asks my inner critic, re-torically. “That’s the whole chapter?” “It’s also about how the idea came to be the one in the metanovel,” I answer. “Not just that I just had it.” “And that’s it?” Asks my inner critic one more time. “That’s the whole chapter?” “Pretty much,” I say. “I like it. I think that it creates suspense. Narrative tension. Extra words. The readers are probably wondering ‘What’s the idea?’” “If there are any readers,” says my inner critic. I’m reading, a reader thought. And I am wondering ‘What’s the idea?’ Self-Referential Metanovel Writing for Dmmies