Conquering the messy middle

 As you might guess, I am in the middle of my latest Inspector Green novel, at about the halfway mark of the first draft, and I am floundering around. Not for want of story ideas but from too any. After starting off my writing career as a pantser (from the "let's dive in and see where this goes" school) I have gradually, over the course of about twenty books, become a "modified pantser". By that I mean, I dive in and see where the story goes but usually project about three or four scenes ahead. I still don't know what will happen or how it will all end, but I'm no longer flying blind from scene to scene. The reason for this is not that I have fallen in love with outlines, but that I have two or three storylines developing simultaneously, with different POV characters, and to keep this juggling act going, I have to keep track of where those storylines are going next so that timelines match up and plot revelations don't trip over each other. It really does feel like juggling, and at the moment, in this messy middle, I've got way too may balls up in the air and I'm at risk of dropping them or having them land on my head.

My creative muse visits not when I'm sitting in "outline" mode, which is bare bones and plot only, but in the creative process of writing the scene itself. Ideas come from several sources. When I'm deep in that zone, "what if" ideas fly at me from left field, often more brilliant than the one I had planned. Other times, I realize I need something to fill a void in a character's day or a reason to get him from Point A to Point B. Or in order to maintain the balance of the story, I need Character Y to do something for a few pages before we rejoin Character X. Solving these dilemmas often gives me my best ideas ever.  If I were writing entirely from outline, none of these serendipitous, unpredictable ideas would happen and the book would be the poorer for it.

But this brings me back to the surfeit of ideas I mentioned earlier. In order to keep track of these brainwaves, I pause long enough to jot them down so I don't forget them. I sometimes end up with too many possibilities for where the story could go next and what Characters X and Y should be doing. This is the real challenge of my messy middle. Do I go in this direction or that? Which will generate the most surprising, exciting story? Which will ultimately lead me out of this maze and reach the end of the book? Like any maze, there are dead ends and blind alleys, and at times the whole exercise feels overwhelming and insoluble. 

But after twenty books in which I did ultimately find the way out of the maze, I have to trust myself. Stay tune, I will report back.

The Fun Begins

 by Catherine Dilts

Don’t we always want to skip the boring parts and get right to the fun? When I have a new idea for a story, I’m tempted to dive straight into the writing. But leaping from the dream phase to the manuscript rarely works out well for me. The same goes for my garden.

Gardening and writing fiction follow similar paths. Phase one is imagining the project. Dreaming. Phase two is preparing for the project. Planning, mapping, outlining. Phase three is where the actual fun begins. In gardening, this is planting. In writing, well, it’s the writing. Telling the story.

If you’re planting a garden, Phase Three is the fun part. You buy plants from the garden shop, order seeds online, or sort through your existing seed packets and saved seeds.

Starting my seedlings indoors is an exciting time, as I set up shelves and grow lights that will take up space in the dining room for the next several months. I prepare the soil for in-ground planting, and refresh the soil in my containers and flower pots. After the last spring freeze, I tuck future flowers and crops into their beds. Water, weed, and wait.

In writing, Phase Three assumes you now have an outline, if you’re a Plotter. Even a Pantser has an idea of where the story is going. You’re ready to start the story’s journey. Maybe you have some little rituals before you type the first word of a new story. You might have to set up a blank manuscript with the proper margins, font, and line spacing before you begin. Or you dive right in, knowing you’ll put it all in the proper format later.

Using the story outline as my map, I begin the journey to a rough draft. I usually have peripheral documents going at the same time. I keep digital research notes close at hand to verify facts as I write. A character list and a series guide are necessities. For my Rose Creek series, I have to keep track of a growing puppy, one character’s pregnancy, the dates and seasons, and names, names, names. Write, rewrite, edit, polish.

When the fun work begins, the garden will eventually bear fruit, and the manuscript will result in a completed short story or novel.