Got your attention, didn’t I?

But the parallel struck me this morning when I had one of those moments. I was considering a major plotline in the new book, chewing over its implications, when it hit me. There was a detail that I had overlooked, but which dovetailed so neatly with the rest of the story that I had to conclude that part of me already knew about it. I spent a few minutes to develop the notion, but it really wasn’t that difficult.

The beauty of that realization was that I could deliver it to my readers too. They would get to a certain point in the story and, hopefully, see this unexpected twist and say, “Aha! I should’ve known!”

It is my job as a writer to make sure my readers have at least one of those moments. Otherwise, I’m not doing my job. No amount of literary foreplay or character cuddling can substitute for a climactic and entirely satisfying “Aha!”