Prose Break

First it was rhyme; now my recurrent funks are inspiring fiction!
Today, climbing out of a funk, although I was relatively cheerful and well-caffeinated, if a bit sleepy from early rising for a car repair errand, I wrote a page or two as a downpayment on my long-planned novel.
Now, the actual writing of this novel has to be mostly on hold until I finish my degree in December and get the poetry book together, and even then can't start in full force until I've put out the debut issue of the lit mag I'm working on a few months after that, but it's okay to start in bits and pieces, now that those goals are well under a year from completion.
What I wrote was the opening piece of the kernel of my story. It's not a central part of the plot, in terms of what I'd include in a synopsis, but it's the kernel of the story because it's the kernel of my character's psyche, if not her "character," so to speak.
I was surprised as well as thrilled that it flowed pretty well. And encouraged.
There's something really satisfying about fiction that is lacking in poetry. Things can be said outright rather than hinted at because there's more space to develop thoughts... they're stretched out, so there's less need for strict economy.
It's true that things can be said outright in a poem now and then, but only a very few things per poem, and then the rest of the poem must work around those things and shroud them with a bit of mystery. With fiction, one can use style to create some mystery, yet things can also be said outright much more often, which is both more cathartic and also just plain easier than the restraint that poetry demands.
I have to say I'm kind of looking forward to my fiction-centric sabbatical from poetry next year. I've had this novel brewing for a long, long time.