Progress

When last we met, Dear Reader, I was in quite a funk. My nephew was in the hospital on life support and here in the Phoenix area we had suffered through several weeks of temperatures above 110ºF. As of today, my nephew has made it through, is off the many machines that kept him alive, and as of last report, may be able to go home to recuperate as early as today or tomorrow. 

As for the weather... No good news there. We've added two more weeks of over 110º. The forecast for Phoenix today (Wed.) is 118º ( I live in Tempe, on the outskirts of the Phoenix metro area, where it's only supposed to get to 116º) However, we've been given some hope that by this weekend we'll drop below 110 for the first time in almost a month! I'll rejoice when that day comes

In the meantime, I'm still working on my latest MS, and have nearly reached the middle. My critique group has been discussing the value of creating a detailed outline before even beginning to write. It's the old plotter vs. pantser debate. I have done both. Each book seems to be a whole new order of creation for me, and demands its own unique method of coming into being. I’ve been known to outline before I begin when I think that would help me clarify the direction of the plot in my own mind. I have also simply started writing, usually at the beginning, but I’ve started in the middle and the end, as well.  

More than once I’ve begun a novel on the fly, and then gone back and created an outline because I’ve gotten myself into a muddle and can’t quite figure the way out. It’s not like this has never happened to me before, and I must remember that miraculously it always works out. As I write the first draft, my beginnings never do match the end, for somewhere in the middle of the story, I changed my mind about this character, or this action, or this story line. I try not to waste time by going back to the beginning and fixing it to fit my new vision. No, no, that way lies madness. I can get (and have gotten) caught up in an endless merry-go-round of fixes and never reach the end. I just have to keep going until the book is done. 

I have never yet faithfully followed an outline, but I can see that disciplined outliners often are able to write much faster and tighter than we wanderers.

 I was told once by a mystery author (who also happens to be a lawyer - a significant detail, I think), that before she begins writing, she outlines each and every one of her novels to the tune of at least one hundred pages, and never deviates therefrom. One Very Big Name of my acquaintance never outlines at all, or even has much in mind when she begins her mammoth novels. She writes dozens of seemingly unrelated episodes, then arranges them in some sort of order and cobbles them together with new scenes and segues. This technique may sound pretty slapdash, but it seems to work for this woman, since she could buy and sell us all.

When I was a pre-teen, I spent several summers at Girl Scout Camp*, way out in the woods outside of Locust Grove, OK. One of our activities was something called a Penny Walk. We would hike down a long, maze-like path through the woods, and every time we came to a fork in the trail, the point-girl would toss a penny to decide which way to go. Every walk was different from the one before, yet we always found our way back.

So I hope to construct this new novel like a penny walk, and every time I come to a fork in the road, I’ll make a decision which way to go, and trust that it will lead me home.

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*Camp Scott, now closed. For those of you old enough to remember, this is where the young campers were murdered in their tent, years after I was there.