The Temptation of the Tangent

Proof that “just one quick check” is how novels are accidentally written … and why the detours are worth it.

image created by JL Tooker (with Canva)

I opened my timeline spreadsheet with the purest of intentions—just one date to verify, nothing more.

Three hours later, I was knee-deep in designing a spy satellite, naming two moons, and wondering if a fictional tide chart might one day double as wall art.

This isn’t rare for me. Truth is, it’s more my norm.

We’ve visited rabbit holes before (see Part 1: Rabbit Holes & Neurodiversity), but tangents are different creatures entirely—and certainly not quite as loopy. Tangents and I have an understanding: they lure me off my neatly paved road, and in return, they sometimes hand me treasures I didn’t even know I was looking for.

Some of my favorite storyverse moments didn’t arrive during scheduled work or according to my beloved outline. They snuck in sideways, wearing the disguise of “just one quick check.”

Vis-à-vis the timeline adventure I referenced above, and …

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The o2 Detour
I meant to give o2 one small vocabulary tweak—just a couple of new phrases in its linguistic bank.

By the time I came up for air, I’d given it a private “poetry residue” file, a habit of quoting obscure philosophers at inconvenient moments, and a half-finished note to itself titled Do Birds Dream?

We could talk about how I came up with P.A.R.A.D.O.X. (o2’s ‘official’ designation) but that was less of a tangent and more of an exercise in chasing rabbits, as opposed to following down holes.

The Kessari Spiral
A quick fact-check on the artificial moon Kessari somehow turned into a full afternoon of calculating its orbital period, debating whether it would have a poetic nickname among the new settlers of Talamh Ru, and imagining the shanty Issi would write about it.

Everyone needs a ‘Kessari’ to fall out of nowhere—won’t' spoil it—but the discovery of the Kessari tangent* has provided a brilliant plot point in World Beyond the Song, solving an issue I hadn’t realized needed solving.

[*The Kessari Tangent—doesn’t that sound like a great name for … oops … tangent alert.]

The Biet Lagos Glow Debate

Designing and imaging an alien species has been one of the most fulfilling parts of this creative adventure. But certainly a complex endeavor.

I only wanted to decide if the Biet Lagos bioluminescence should pulse or shimmer.
Four hours later, I had a whole ritual tied to lunar cycles, an untranslatable word for “listening with your skin,” and a sketch that looks suspiciously like a jellyfish wearing a crown.

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These are serious matters. I’m not sure I could have found my way without having been entangled with tangents.

Zophia would be just a mean mom, not a main player. And Issi is my greatest ‘tangent’ to date. Two characters who meant to serve simple roles—be mean, and hold open a door—became entire stories if not novels, within themselves.

Of course, tangents do have a habit of twisting themselves into knots—but that’s another journey, and another map, for another day.

For now, I’ll just refill my coffee, glance at the sticky note that says Do Birds Dream?, and promise myself I’ll get back to the timeline … right after this one quick check.

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Your turn—what’s the last tangent that stole your afternoon and left you oddly glad it did?