What's that word?

Last night I was tip-tapping away at the keyboard, writing up both the next section of Hatrack, and a new short that is intended to be SF Horror, and don't ask me how I was doing both simultaneously, because I wasn't. Anyway, I'm not sure the SF story will be horror, because I have written horror by accident, and once before tried to write it on purpose (the Halloween story, Sugar Skull) and it seems I can pull it off on accident but not on purpose. I shall try, as it's not going to be gore, but doubt and uncertainty and a haunting sense of helplessness. 

Anyway. This wasn't supposed to be about genre constructs (although thank you, Dorothy, for pointing me in the right direction). This was supposed to be about the missing word. I do this fairly often, and having talked to friends, it seems I'm not alone. There will be a word lurking in the periphery of my brain. I know it's there. I can sort of see the shape of it. But when I reach for it, it's gone. Leaving only a mischievous sort of giggle sensation in it's place. It's annoying. Fortunately, most of the time I can ask the First Reader for the word, and talk around the edges of it, well enough for him to fill in the blank. If I can't ask for help, I'll put the closest word I can think of in brackets, and come back to it later. Most of the time I'll come up with it then. 

He and I were talking about this phenomenon last night, and agreed it's somewhat related to the name thing. I'll call for my youngest child in some combination of three or four names, only getting to his at the end. It's a high emotion distracted brain thing. I know that when I am writing I may look calm, but the mind is a turbulent froth of story and editoral commentary beneath the surface. Losing a word can knock me right out of the story if I let it, so I try not to overthink it, just bracket and move on. 

You can always catch it later. Or your editor will, and send you a note of 'hey, why are there brackets here?' which is why it is so reassuring to have more eyeballs than just mine on my work before it does go public. Except Hatrack, which is going public first, and will see editors later. Ah, well. 

The word, by the way, was talisman. I was mentally seeing 'sacred [object]' and relic was not the word. Talisman was, or close enough my brain accepted it. 

And now, off to the labs.