You're suggesting that if I sat with the picture a little longer instead of trying to "transcribe" what I'm getting as fast as I can, which is what usually happens, to be honest, the "picture" might be clearer. Am I right? Just trying to make sure I understand...

Transcribe exactly what you're getting, yes, but then let go. Stop, read what the scene is, and keep it at the forefront of your mind as you simply free associate from that starting point, not editing, not stopping, just going wherever your mind takes you, even if it makes no sense at all, the important thing is not to stop, not to take a breath and understand what you're doing, just let the words flow, and you'll have ended up transcribing what the scene was and will be.

If you want, I can send you a three-page freewrite and the story that eventually came out of it, which uses about five percent of the freewrite material textually, at most.

My thinking is that, if you're having trouble connecting the dots, you may be seeing individual scenes, which can cut the flow of the story itself.

Try thinking of it in these terms: you're on a journey. Eight hours a day, you're on a bus, going along the road. All sorts of shit happens out there on the highway, in the barns, diners, truckstops, to the small black birds, to the weather.

Any and/or all of these events, moments, personalities, movements, can at some point play a huge part as you go from beginning to end.

But if you're concentrating your interior vision solely, or almost solely, on what happens during the 90 minutes after you check into the motel for the night, then you're missing the rest of the trip.

I think you may be seeing scenes. So, free-write (as much language as you want, to fuill in the head picture) or drabble (impose the discipline of a precise word count, to get the nugget), some of those connections instead of merely concentrating on a single scene.

Because the invisible stuff out there having an impact is what makes the trip interesting.

Not a drabble, exactly, but a short poem I wrote awhile back that is relevant. Thought I'd share.

Persephone

Did Pesephone know
when Hades placed the pomegranate seed
on her tongue
what sweet temptations she would unlock
if she bit down?
And when her teeth closed
and he pressed his cold lips to hers,
did she feel the juices running down her chin,
or did she feel herself only
split
in two?

Jeepers, Kristin.

That's - damn, that's a corker.

A thought for a drabble topic: the first paragraph of a murder mystery or thriller or something over-the-top and dramatic. Could be Bulwer-Littonish, could be a bit more restrained.

(The thought came to me as I was riding the bus to work in the cold rain, and the words "It rained all night. We prayed it wouldn't wash the dirt off the new grave in the woods." came to me. I have a scary muse.)

You're not the only one. Personally, I blame television. :)

A first-pagraph drabble? On a book genre theme?

TEPPPPPYYYYYYYY!

You rang?

(bounce bounce bounce)

Can we have that idea soon? Can we? Pleeeeeease?

As in, picking a genre - mystery, romance, scifi, whatever rings the writers' bellses - and having the drabble be the exact 100-word opening paragraph?

I think it would be a humongous help to folks having trouble focussing.