Guest Blogger - Leaking

I finished my article; all that remains is a quick fact check (Thanks, Cindi) and polish before sending it off.

So.... Instead of telling you all about it (because I don't want to hear anymore about it right now), I figured I'd have some fun.

PK is an old friend; we have much in common and I'm very grateful for the internet because without it I can be an uncommunicative azzhole; I'm very glad staying in touch is as easy as punching a few keys.
I think it's relevant to point out that PK is 50-something with a few chronic medical conditions to which she refuses to surrender. She's tough; that's why I like her. I'll let you see for yourself. Here's an email she sent me last week:

"The leak...

"MK,

"Okay, so I'm sitting here feeling like poor pitiful me and that I can't budge the big honkin' side by side refrig.without hurting my back. Then it hits me, I didn't even try. Where did that whimpy attitude come from? So, I tried it and could pull it out. Yipee. Discovered there is a leak inside the wall where the water connection is for the icemaker. The sheetrock is wet. Turned the water off at the wall but that won't stop the water spewing inside the wall.

"Called J to brag. But still felt a victim. So, I'm thinking the water to the house doesn't need to be on at least overnight. So, I decide I'm gonna suit up and go outside in subfreezing weather to turn off the water to the house. I can't remember what type of apparatus that faucet is. But first, I'll take a hot bubble bath. Which I did.

"Allowed the water heater to refill and warm and ran pitchers of drinking water. Put on wool longjohn's, double socks, heavy work coat, gloves, & tobaggon cos it's like 17 degrees. Filled pockets with hammer, screw driver and wrench and flashlight. Get out there and it's a simple lever to just pull up. Bingo! I'm a freakin' handyman.

"So, will call a plumber tomorrow. Yeah, right on Sunday. But at least further damage won't be done. I'm feeling pretty damn tough right down! Got my groove back."

-PK"


See what I mean?

Okay, back to work...

Plot Threads & Novel Prep

In preparation for next Thursday (Nov. 1 - NaNoWriMo Month), I've been organizing my thoughts and my office.

Here's a picture of the dry erase board that I hung beside my desk. I'm using it as a visual timeline reference:

(This picture makes it look crooked, doesn't it? I used a level before nailing it on there. I hate extra, unnecessary holes in the wall.)

It's just about empty. I tried to write a rough outline of scenes and current events in chronological order, but I haven't gotten very far. Individual scenes are written on index cards and shuffled according to need. This visual aid is supposed to give me the information at a glance instead of digging through a pile of scribbled-on cards. It might work if I actually write something on it.

The next tool is a new one to me. I thought of it because I do think much better with visual prompting. I think all the reading I have done (and do) has wired my brain to more efficiently use information I can see; I like audio books, but I can't wrap my head around the information nearly as well as if I read it myself. (Or maybe multi-tasking interferes. Or maybe it's the screaming children.)

This picture is the view from the doorway to my office:

See those strings hanging from the light?

Those are plot threads (ha). Each string has a tag on it with the basic conflict that needs to be addressed and solved one way or another. The light from the window is blocking out the tags in this picture, but they are there -written big enough and simple enough that I can see from my seat behind the desk.

I needed a way to keep track of each strand of story. When I write, I have a hard time seeing the forest because I have my nose against a tree - each tree, one tree at a time. I hope that this little ploy will assist me in keeping track of everyone's conflicts - all the big ones, but more importantly, all the small ones that are easy to forget about when I've got my nose smashed into the rough bark of another tree.

Yeah, it's kind of silly, but I'm not above silly to get the job done.

When I start a project, I have a vague idea of what it's about. I start with a question, usually a 'what if?' question.

For Vultures, it went something like this:

What if you shot someone's dog?

What if that person just happened to be a bit, uh, unbalanced (or just a plain garden-variety lunatic)?

What would he do?

So, I knew the 'what if?' - the driving question that starts the book. I dreamed up my setting and the characters lived in my brain, percolating for months before I knew them well enough to start writing. The act of writing gave the characters flesh and personality, but it also did the same thing for the plot: as the characters became more involved in the story, their actions and individual quirks began to mold the plot. Essentially, the plot development is a natural consequence of character.

A threatening lunatic would be dealt with very differently by a Bible-toting Sunday school teacher and, say, a pot-smoking pregnant night shift nurse. Right?

And, of course, the ever-present energetic question, "What if...?"

What I mean is: it takes a special kind of crazy to: 1.) Shoot someone's dog. At their house. And 2.) to write a book in the first place. Doing it is a helluva lot harder than talking about it.

These physical plot threads will be a constant reminder of the loose ends that need tending to as I go along studying the moss that grows up the trunk of each tree. The more complicated the story, the more involved I get with the story, the more threads there will be.

Sometime along about the middle of November I'll take another picture so I can share the thread proliferation. I anticipate that there should be about 12-16 threads that deserve their own string. I'll try to get the string tags in that picture, too. If I remember, I'll tell you about the rejected idea of color coding (I'm not that organized) and the original purpose for which this string was intended....