writing inspiration

Finishing a book without knowing where it’s going

finding joy in writing the unpredictable story

Michelle Richmond
The Caffeinated Writer
2 min readAug 29, 2024

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Photo by Nirvana Frames on Unsplash

Toward the end of the wonderful memoir Yoga (which is as much about writing as it is about yoga), the French writer Emmanuel Carrere claims that there are two kinds of filmmakers and writers: those who hope the final film or final manuscript will be much the same as they imagined when they first set out to create it, and those for whom

“the opposite is the case: the less the film or book resembles what they’d imagined, the longer and more unpredictable the path between he starting point and the end, the more the result surprises them, the happier they are.”

I don’t believe one type of writer is better than the other, but I know that I am the latter type: a writer for whom the path is long and unpredictable. Every book ends at a destination I could not have foreseen. Maybe you are that kind of writer too. And if you are, don’t despair. In fact, I want you to celebrate the unpredictability, and have faith that the place you are going is worth getting to.

When I put a book together, I come to understand, in fits and starts, what this book wants to be…or what I want this book to be, or, more accurately, the reality falls somewhere in the middle. It is…

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Michelle Richmond
The Caffeinated Writer

NYT bestselling author of THE MARRIAGE PACT & other novels & story collections. Write with me: thewritersworkshops.com. Books: https://michellerichmond.com