That was cool.

Alright. So last night, after Ballroom Bootcamp, I went to write my obligatory "something" on my NaNo rewrite last night. It's a banquet scene - well, actually, a state dinner scene, but a similar principle - and I've been wondering why I keep setting myself up for these scenes, as I don't even like writing them.

So I'm staring at the screen, wondering what on earth I can do to get this ball rolling. At the last minute, inspiration arrives - a flash of it, the likes of which I haven't seen in months, and I follow it. My main character's place card is closer to the monarchs than those of her parents, and her name has a title in front of it - the Lady Vivessa Saverra.

Nice rise in status, nice friction with her father especially (he's a duke, doesn't much like to be ignored), and better yet, it keeps unfolding.

Fifteen minutes passed in a keystroke. I introduced a romantic subplot - my second ever, and my first on purpose (in a manner of speaking). If you've seen me anywhere else, you've seen that I'm patently antiromance. It just doesn't appeal to me. And yet last night, I let the story guide me into dangerous, challenging waters, and for those fifteen minutes (I would have gone on longer, but by this point it was 11:30 and I really needed to be in bed) writing had magic again.

That was cool.

(So is this: 10500. I hit 10k. Finally. Now onward to 15k!)

Moral of the story: just because you don't like (or don't think you like) a genre or a literary device or a subplot doesn't mean you shouldn't at least try it. Your writing might flounder with it, or it might shine. Who knows?